A New Beginning
by Pretzhog
Summary: A group of pinatas of the Pinata Resistance attempt to stop the sour's tyranny, their quest for liberation takes them further than they thought was possible.
1. Chapter 1

-1**Viva Piñata: A New Beginning**

**(A Short Fanfic By: Tobias Pretzhog)**

**Chapter 1**

War was only the beginning for Piñata Island. Not a soul knew what events would turnout after the chaos was finally over. This story recounts the tales of an misfit group of piñatas who triumph over their hardships and end the suppression against their kind as well as find out the story behind their own tragic past.

The Piñata Resistance, a hidden force and a helping hand who's goal is to end the sour tyranny that plagues their island and the world around them. Whether it be on the ground, underwater, or in the sky, the Resistance has been there to counter the sour onslaught to the best of their ability. But ability alone won't be enough as the sours still held the upper hand with their mysterious powers ranging from telekinesis to bending the air into fire. Anything was possible for the sours at this point. Knowing this, the Resistance constantly pray for a miracle

It was just another day defending the home turf as two exhausted fudgehogs emerged from an elevator, entering the heart of Base-3-R, just one of many bases located around the island. The pair were near opposite in personality and in variant color. Despite these differences, they ended up being the best of friends when they were first assigned together in a squad a couple of years back.

Jorelo, the black fudgehog, was lecturing to the white fudgehog, Falkor, about the recent events of their latest mission that was failed as they navigated through the halls. Poor Falkor knew he had screwed it all up, and Jorelo was just making matters worse for the stressed fudgehog.

Many of their missions involved them both taking down small scouting squads of sours. However this one was different and much more difficult. Both fudgehogs knew this fact beforehand, but Falkor had taken the mission for the brownie points, anything to rise above the ranks.

The frustrated white fudgehog was on the brink of blowing up in Jorelo's face when a dark blue and purple pretztail rushed at them, screaming her lungs out with joy as she ran. Both fudgehogs recognized the pretztail as their only other friend, Pandora.

"Jorelo! You made it back safe! I was so worried about you!" the eager pretztail said as she jumped into Jorelo, nearly taking him down with a tackle-like hug. The dark fudgehog wasn't surprised by her actions as he was greeted in such a fashion each time when he got back from a long day of killing sours. Despite going through a rut, he returned her hug just as firm.

"I'm fine, nothing to worry about Pandora," he replied calmly even though he was going to be chewed out in a few seconds by the Resistance base leader. It was then Falkor decided to butt into their conversation.

"Geez you two, get a room!" He joked harshly with them. Slightly bothered, Pandora released Jorelo from her grasp and faced herself towards Falkor, giving him a nasty glare. Jorelo knew it was just Falkor being humorous in his own, irksome way.

"There's nothing sexual about plain hugging Falkor, so shut it, besides, me and Jorelo are just friends anyways," Pandora scowled, throwing a decent fist into Falkor's left arm.

"Ow!" He shouted and rubbed the newly developed bruise, looking at the swelled area.

"I thought piñata resistance soldiers were tougher than that!" Pandora mocked him. Slightly insulted, Falkor glanced back up at Pandora, his eyes blazing an angry trail as they started to water faintly from the pain. Though the bruised fudgehog had known he would get the favor returned to him for making such a comment, he had gone through with the mischievous action anyways.

"Okay, that's enough guys," Jorelo parted between them, attempting to stop Pandora and Falkor from starting up a brawl. Both bickering piñatas eyed each other up as the peacekeeping fudgehog kept a paw on each one's shoulder to keep them in their place. "Anyways… Falkor, you and me gotta get to debriefing, I really don't want to keep the boss waiting after what had happened," Jorelo looked into Falkor's eyes like an infuriated viper, ready to strike if the fudgehog disobeyed. And just mentioning the boss forced Falkor to swallow hard from the fear of what was in store for him. He couldn't help but let the recent nightmare haunt him of how he had let Piñata Resistance down just a few hours ago. Falkor couldn't take that kind of pressure at all.

Jorelo drew his paws back to his sides and sighed, letting his bitterness flow out, however he didn't expect Falkor to break away from the group, leaving just Pandora and himself.

"I'll talk to you two later!" Falkor shouted at them without looking back as the double doors ahead slid back together just nearly after Falkor bolted past them. Pandora had exhaled her stress shortly after Falkor was out of her sight.

"Thank goodness he's gone," she said with a hint of unpleasantness. Jorelo turned towards the blue pretztail, sneaking a tiny chuckle.

"Eh… You learn to deal with him," Jorelo shrugged as Pandora rolled her eyes, pouring out a tiring groan.

"Sometimes I want to just tear him to shreds," she said as her anger temporarily returned to help her rip apart an imaginary Falkor limb from limb with only her paws.

"Anyways I should be heading to the boss's office too Pandora, we'll talk later," Jorelo started for the same doors as Falkor did, but unlike Falkor, Jorelo wasn't in such a rush, "just stop over at my room after the debriefing okay?" Jorelo didn't wait for her to reply, as he was already halfway towards the door.

Pandora wanted to yell out that she would certainly meet him, but by the time she was going to, Jorelo had already been obscured by twin doors.

"Okay Jorelo…" She murmured to herself as she gazed at the ground in a brief depression, wishing Jorelo didn't have to hurry around like he did.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Jorelo and Falkor entered their base leader's office, his office décor was color coated the same dull gray as the rest of the base's structure. Their leader was sitting in his chair facing opposite from the door as he always did when low ranked soldiers of the Piñata Resistance came for debriefings, briefings, and the such. Jorelo wasn't too worked up about what was to come as he knew Falkor was going to get more of the punishment than himself.

"Well well well…" Their leader said in disappointment backed up with some steaming anger, "who's responsible for this… This… This failure!" He choked out. Falkor winced at the words, however Jorelo rolled his eyes, letting it in one ear and out the other.

"I-I-I am sir," Falkor managed to take the rightful blame. The base leader had cleared his throat before he went on.

"Hmph! Just what I'd expect out of an apprentice," the base leader assumed as a beads of sweat trailed down Falkor's forehead. Falkor of course was the apprentice of Jorelo. Jorelo took him under his wing as soon as Falkor joined, simply because it was orders, and in the Piñata Resistance… You didn't go against orders, no matter how much they weren't in your favor.

"I-I'm sorry sir," Falkor apologized nervously, biting his lip soon after to keep his teeth from clattering. The dark fudgehog looked over to his friend, he could tell Falkor was emotionally at his worse right now.

_ "It'll be over soon Falkor_," Jorelo thought to himself trying to see if Falkor could pick up the message telepathically, but the chance of it being successful was ridiculously low, however it didn't hurt to hope for Falkor's sake.

"I have nothing more to say, you're both dismissed until further orders," The base leader shooed them out, clearing his throat violently in a fit of coughs.

"Yes sir," both fudgehogs said as they bowed out of the room. As he exited, Jorelo sighed to himself as he closed the door behind him, taking another good look at Falkor.

"You okay there?" Jorelo was concerned about his panicky friend. Falkor glanced back to Jorelo wiping the sweat from his own forehead before responding.

"I will be, but I thought for a second that he was gonna kill me!" Falkor exclaimed with eyes wide in fear.

"Don't worry, no one's been killed over a mishap," Jorelo reassured Falkor slowly to calm him down, "maybe discharged from the Resistance, but _never_ killed," he patted Falkor on the back as the white fudgehog let out a long sigh, residing in the relief Jorelo offered him.

"Well, I guess the boss likes me then if I'm still here… I don't know." Falkor questioned his leader's actions, "anyways… I'll talk to you later, I really need some sleep Jor…"

"I understand, I remember my first days here weren't the best either," Jorelo reminisced as he waved to the departing fudgehog. Soon recalling the promised he made to Pandora, the dark fudgehog journeyed through the hallways towards his own room, it wasn't that far away either, just a few swerves here and there and you were right in front of the door.

As he finished his short journey, Jorelo slid his ID card through the scanner underneath the doorknob. The contraption unlocked itself with a loud click as Jorelo returned the card back into one of the belt slits at his side. Turning the knob and letting himself in, Jorelo surveyed his room for anything out of the ordinary before putting himself at ease.

"Everything's in place," Jorelo had said to himself as he closed himself in. When Jorelo began his new life within the resistance, he had picked up on many rumors of a malicious someone who liked to ravage through rooms within the base occasionally. Jorelo hadn't seen anything like that for himself, but it never hurt to keep an eye out.

Jorelo walked over to his bed and sat down on the edge of it, however before he could lie down and relax, a flashing icon and repetitive beep from his laptop caught his attention.

"Must be Malak…" Jorelo mumbled to himself while still gazing at the laptop screen. Malak, a brown mallowolf, also worked with the Resistance but resided in a base different from Jorelo's. The two were great friends along with Pandora back during childhood. However the two were separated from Malak when the mallowolf had decided to do some traveling and sightseeing around Piñata Island.

The dark fudgehog sprang up from the bed and scurried to grab a seat in front of the laptop. Pulling up the instant messaging system, Jorelo was ready to engage in conversation with Malak

-Jorelo: Hey Malak.

Jorelo waited patiently for Malak, the poor fudgehog almost dozed off having nothing else to do. It wasn't until fifteen minutes later that Malak had replied back.

-Malak: Oh! Hey… Sorry, I was talking with someone away from the computer.

-Jorelo: It's okay, how've you been?

-Malak: The usual, I can't wait till this war is over.

-Jorelo: You always say that.

-Malak: And I will until this war's over. It's driving me insane.

-Jorelo: I know, I know.

A random knock on the door had interrupted Jorelo's train of thought.

-Jorelo: BRB

-Malak: Okay.

Jorelo propelled himself away from the desk and scrambled from his seat.

"Be right there!" He shouted at his soon to be visitor as he shut the laptop close, unfortunately Jorelo went unheard as the knocking returned, more impatient, wanting in as it grew a little bit louder. "I said I'd be there! Geez!" Jorelo said, finally making his way to the door. The annoyed fudgehog tore it open only to find his friend Pandora on the other side. "…Oh, hey Pandora!" Jorelo's irritation had instantly drained away as he pulled the door completely open and motioned for Pandora to walk in.

"Hiya Jorelo!" The perky pretztail replied while walking over to the bed to grab a seat, Jorelo sat next to her after he closed the door. "So… How was debriefing?" She asked him hesitantly, expecting a negative answer.

"Eh… Falkor was the one to take the crap this time," Jorelo replied, laughing a bit at it after.

"Serves that idiot right!" Pandora commented, joining in with her friend's giggling. Jorelo had to calm himself down before going on.

"Wel-…" Jorelo started, but was cut off by the obnoxious ringing of his cell phone. "Hm?" He hummed while taking out his cell phone out to see who was calling him, however the number was unavailable. Though the clever fudgehog didn't need to know the number to know who it was.

"I'll need to take this call in private Pandora. I'll be back in a bit," Jorelo informed Pandora as he walked outside his room and opened up the phone while closing the door so Pandora couldn't hear what was going on.

"Yes?" he ask into the phone as a feminine electronic voice cut him off with, "your next mission is at Piñata Central, briefing will take place tomorrow at the aircraft hangars," the receiver clicked out soon after.

"Hmm," he acknowledged the situation as he hung up the phone and stepped back into his room. The dark fudgehog had set the phone down next to the lamp by his bed before sitting back down.

"Who was that?" Pandora asked. Jorelo just shrugged carelessly before answering.

"Ah, no one, just being sent to Piñata Central tomorrow," he said with a slight uneasiness.

"That's funny," the pretztail replied, giving another giggle. The gesture puzzled Jorelo, what could be so humorous about getting thrown back into the battlefield?

"…Why is it funny?" Jorelo questioned his friend while staring at her, his eyes filled with pondering apprehension.

"I'm being sent there too!" Pandora exclaimed as she was all hyped up about the upcoming mission, "I even requested that me and you get put in the same squad too!"

"What!" Jorelo found himself shouting at Pandora, hoping she was only joking, "you can't be serious Pandora!" the fudgehog was on the edge of his bed at this point.

"Nope, you heard right Jorelo," she confirmed with a straight face this time, "I'm going to Piñata Central and joining your squad whether you like it or not."

"But, But-" Jorelo tried to stop her in anyway possible, but Pandora cut him off before he could think of anything.

"What, am I not ready yet? Is that it?" She snapped at him, "remember why we joined in the first place Jorelo?" She waited for a reply, though Jorelo only sighed after recalling the memory of when they willingly signing up for the Piñata Resistance. They both vowed to lay their lives on the line to protect the island and to stop the senseless killings the sours were causing as well as to achieve the dream to see the former glory of Piñata Island once again. Jorelo nodded after spending a moment in reminiscence. "Well I want to keep going _without_ you holding me back, got that?" She glared at him sternly. Jorelo wanted to recoil from the words, but he hid his emotions for the time being.

"Fine… I'll stop holding you back then," Jorelo promised, even though he'd probably start doing it again later on.

"Good… Then as leader, I demand you be my body shield!" Pandora said with all seriousness, soon laughing her tail off unable to play the act any longer. The chuckling pretztail cover her mouth in attempt to reduce her hilarity as she saw Jorelo's anger grow. The fudgehog didn't like the way that Pandora handled most situations like this.

"First of all, I'm the leader here! And second…" Jorelo exhaled irritably as he became annoyed once again, "this is one of the reasons I don't like you doing stuff like this!" Pandora looked over to ground, avoiding Jorelo's glare. She didn't like getting talked down to especially if it was Jorelo doing it. "This crap has got to stop Pandora, this is a war we're in. Piñatas are dying and you sit here and make jokes," then Jorelo said something he would soon regret, "you're acting just like Falkor," Pandora immediately looked back up to him, right in the eye at that. Her stare was filled with new fury, appearing ready to bash some skulls in.

"Don't ever compare me to that dumbass!" Pandora roared as she stood up from the bed, she was almost ready to beat Jorelo to a pulp. The fearful fudgehog tilted back as Pandora leaned closer in.

"Okay! Okay, I'm sorry! You're not like Falkor, okay?" Jorelo shielded himself with his paws to protect himself from Pandora, but instead she retracted from him started laughing once again.

"Boy, it's fun messing with you Jorelo," she stuck her tongue out at him while taunting him with a mocking smile.

Jorelo became mystified with her unusual mood swing as the pretztail continued on, "but seriously, don't compare me to that idiot," Jorelo shook his head to recollect he thoughts as he had some trouble understanding her actions sometimes.

"I wish you wouldn't do that," Jorelo calmed himself down, "you really scare me when you do that y'know..."

"Well, since you said you wouldn't hold me back anymore," Pandora started, "I might take your request into deep consideration," she was playing with him again, oh how he hated that. Jorelo took a quick glance at the clock, it read 11:09 PM.

"Anyways, it's getting late…" Jorelo faked a yawn, "do me a favor and get some sleep, okay?" He stood up and walked over to the door, holding it open for her.

"Awww," Pandora groaned, hoping he would let her stay for a bit longer, though Jorelo had enough of Pandora for one day.

"I'll see ya tomorrow during briefing," Jorelo said, waiting for his friend to show herself out.

"…How about we meet up at the lounge early tomorrow morning instead?" Pandora offered. Jorelo sighed at her, trying to keep his cool with Pandora.

"We'll see, okay?" The dark fudgehog replied as he turned the knob around impatiently.

"Okaaay…" Pandora stood up and walked herself out, trying hard not to sound upset about his answer.

"G'night," Jorelo guided Pandora through the door.

"Yup, good night Jorelo," she said as Jorelo slowly closed the door behind her.

_ "Finally, she's gone,"_ relief came to Jorelo as he fell into a sitting position leaning his back against the door.

"Geez, sometimes I just can't stand her…" Jorelo said to himself with a sigh, he knew he didn't really mean it deep down as it was the irritation that was talking. The dark fudgehogs attention was ripped away by the sound of the instant messenger notification blaring off. Struggling to his feet, Jorelo rushed over to his laptop to check the situation. Observing the screen, Jorelo caught a notification from Malak, checking to see if Jorelo was there.

Malak: You okay? 

Jorelo plopped onto the chair and dragged it over the laptop, soon replying to the message.

Jorelo: Sorry about that.

Malak: It's alright, what happened?

Jorelo: Eh, I had a visitor.

Malak: Ah who was it?

Jorelo looked at the clock again, 11:11 PM. He needed to get some sleep and Malak was keeping him up at the moment. Though time spend together was usually scarce and savored, Jorelo really had to cut the mallowolf off for the night. Not getting enough sleep can spell trouble on the battlefield. Jorelo rubbed his eyes, soon stretching out to release another yawn before typing up his reply.

Jorelo: Just a friend, anyways I'm getting tired. I'm gonna go to bed.

Malak: Good night Jor.

Jorelo: You too Malak.

Jorelo signed off the instant messenger and shut the laptop down. With Malak now out of his way, the dark fudgehog got up from his seat to turn the lights out. Fortunately, bedside lamp powered on as soon as Jorelo flicked the switch off, preventing the fudgehog from navigating in total darkness. The fudgehog shed his belt as he crawled into bed and clicked the lamp off. As he was just about to drift off, his cell phone rang once again, lighting flame to Jorelo's anger fuse.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3  
**

Jorelo switched on the lamp back on and reached around the floor for his phone which still was attached to his belt.

"_Dammit, who calls this late_?" He questioned it as his time to rest up for tomorrow dwindled slowly. Once the phone was found, Jorelo tore it open and spoke into it. "Hello?" the fudgehog said, trying his best to hold back his irritation.

"Jor, it's me, Falkor," the voice on the other line said with not nearly the same tiredness in his voice as Jorelo, "I didn't wake you up did I…?"

"_Argh! What does he want? Last I heard he was gonna go to sleep_!" Jorelo threw a fit in his head, but shortly stopped to take a deep breath in and out to keep his cool. "No, though I was about to go to bed…" He lied a bit to keep Falkor from feeling guilty, a yawn accidentally slipped out of the tired fudgehog.

"Well was it just me or…" Falkor began to sound nervous, "or did the boss… Sound a bit, different?" Jorelo didn't say anything about the comment at first, instead he thought over of what the base leader had said earlier today. Now that he had thought about it, the base leader _did_ sound somewhat dissimilar of what he usually did.

"I guess…" Jorelo carelessly confirmed, trying to end their conversation as fast as he could. Every second of lying in bed happened to be more important than discussing what the boss sounded like.

"You guess?" Falkor retaliated, "Jorelo, _anyone_ could probably tell that he sounds different."

"Well it's probably just a cold or something," Jorelo threw out a hasty hypothesis, "don't make a big deal out of it," this made Falkor sigh in disappointment, The white fudgehog knew Jorelo wasn't very interested about the subject.

"Okay…" Falkor said, feeling like he could say nothing else to make Jorelo listen.

"…Can I go to bed now?" Jorelo said straightforwardly, he couldn't stay awake much longer.

"Sure… Sorry for keeping you up Jor," Jorelo hung up the phone the moment Falkor apologized. Letting out one last yawn, Jorelo laid himself out on the bed as he dug his head into the pillow and shut his eyes, a electronic voice came on, but Jorelo was already fast asleep.

"Engaging hibernation mode," it buzzed, and time just seem to fly by after that, and before Jorelo knew it, it was already morning.

"Hibernation mode, disengaged," the voice greeted Jorelo as the waking fudgehog blinked his eyes open and raised his arms in the air to let out a morning yawn. Glancing over at the clock, the time was 7:30 AM. Jorelo sat up and scooted over to the edge of the bed.

"I gotta get ready," he said to himself. Standing up, he walked over and opened the hidden wall closet on the other side of the bed, and gather all his equipment he would need for the upcoming mission. Magnum… M-16... A combat knife… Grenades, even though he wasn't so big on using the grenades in war. Once he was ready, he shut the closet door and walked out of the room and headed toward the lounge. The dark fudgehog had a rude awakening when he happened to run into Falkor on the way there. Even though Jorelo was still slightly annoyed with him, they had talked about the rest of the day to come while still heading towards the lounge.

"Hey Jorelo!" Falkor said gleefully, "how'd you sleep?" which was kind of a dumb question to ask Jorelo since the hibernation process knocked you out cold until it was time to wake up (Or someone who _was_ awake stopped it manually). Falkor, however, didn't have one of these systems in his room as the hibernation systems were usually installed by requests from troubled sleepers.

"Good," Jorelo shrugged, "but I wish I had had more time to sleep," Falkor's good mood was soiled a bit.

"I'm sorry…" Falkor apologized, "it's just I had something on my mind."

"Mmm-hmm," Jorelo hummed and nodded at him.

"And I can't get to sleep without getting things off my chest," Falkor said, "and the only people I know here are you and Pandora… And I don't think Pandora is up to a one on one chat with me."

"I wouldn't think so either," Jorelo said, snickering a bit, "she got mad at me for saying she was just like you, I think…"

"Oh really?" Falkor started to let out his own chuckle as well.

"Well, then after she joked about not really being mad about," Jorelo said, "but she still didn't want me to ever say that again," Jorelo explained as they were both nearing their destination, or at least Jorelo's. The dark fudgehog had no idea if Falkor was going to the lounge as well. The last hallway there would decide if Falkor was making his way there or not, Jorelo took a right and Falkor followed.

"Just to let you know," Falkor informed his friend, "from first hand experience: Pandora hits hard," Falkor said as he tried to find the bruise on the arm Pandora had punched yesterday. The comment made Jorelo chuckle lightly, he knew Pandora would have hit him harder, but Piñata Resistance didn't need anymore piñatas in the infirmary. For Jorelo however, Pandora would never hurt him on purpose, maybe on accident here and there during childhood in blind fury.

Both fudgehog's had entered the lounge and headed towards one of the tables near the corner and sat down across from each other. This was their usual hang out during their free time. However there was the exception if the table was already taken, but the chance of that happening was slim.

"So… What are we doing here Jor?" Falkor questioned him as he looked around, not many other piñatas were here strangely. The light fudgehog also spotted a few televisions on the walls around them, these tubes broadcasted channels from other countries, in languages these piñatas didn't understand.

"I promised Pandora I'd meet her here," Jorelo replied while watching one of the screens himself, the news that was displayed really didn't catch his interest so he gave his full attention back to Falkor.

"…Is she gonna be late?" Falkor shot another question at him, wondering where she was.

"She didn't call me telling me she was, let alone at all." Jorelo said impatiently, wishing Pandora would arrive a little faster.

"Okay," Falkor said dully as he imagined getting another jab in the arm when she arrived, but it was unlike Pandora to hold a grudge against anyone. The pretztail didn't really hate anyone and you wouldn't call Falkor an exception, though he did pass the barrier of a "painful annoyance," but there were some joyful moments Pandora and Falkor had shared together.

"Why don't we get something to drink while we wait?" Jorelo said as Falkor nodded in agreement, licking his dry lips. The white fudgehog followed his instructor to a nearby vending machine. Jorelo pulled out his ID card and slid it through the scanner on the vending machine.

These venders were a bit different than the once that required currency back before the war, for the fact that items inside didn't cost a thing. However there _was_ a limit on how much you could pull out of it in a certain amount of hours. The machine was created with this rule in effect so everyone could get their fair share of whatever they wanted out of the vender. Jorelo pressed a button and an un-cola soda can popped out the dispenser, he picked it up out of the slot promptly and had gone back to sit at the table. Falkor did the same, except he had chose a cola product. Both fudgehogs met back at the table as they both sipped their sodas slowly. Jorelo finally came up with a question this time.

"Just wondering… Where are they sending you Falkor?" He asked carefully. Falkor took a long sip of his soda before answering.

"Didn't you hear? Almost everyone's being sent to Piñata Central," Falkor said, and rolled his eyes in disgust of it.

"…'Cept you?" Jorelo finished for him.

"Actually no, I'm going too," Falkor sighed stressfully as Jorelo took a drink of his soda, his eyes caught Pandora coming from the hallway in a fast paced walk.

"Sorry I'm late!" She yelled over to Jorelo, Falkor twisted himself over the chair to look at her.

"It's okay," Jorelo nodded at the pretztail, offering her a seat between them, she took it and sat down promptly.

"Hey Pandy," Falkor said. The white fudgehog gave her random nicknames when he greeted her most of the time just to get a kick out of her.

"Shut it Falkor…" Pandora said while glaring at him. Her visage alone told him that she wasn't going to put up with anymore of his crap.

"Fine, you win," Falkor surrendered, "but besides that, are you going to Piñata Central as well?" Pandora nodded and let out a long, tense breath of air.

"Now that I think about it," Pandora started, "I wish I hadn't demanded to go with you guys," Pandora concluded glumly.

"Why?" Jorelo asked, tilting his head, "_she's finally realized it huh?"_ He told himself.

"Didn't you hear?" She began, waiting for them to respond, though no one said anything so she continued, "…Piñata Central is practically up to it's neck in sours, the PDF is sending out aircrafts to bomb the area, and you know how they are take action!" Pandora said, and she had every right to be worried. The PDF, or Piñata Defense Force, was more of a nuisance than a blessing. Most of their soldiers couldn't even hold their gun properly in battle. And Fear ran in their soldiers faster than they ran from it, but like Pandora, they had the right to be, their enemies were no _normal_ sours. These sours were pumped up with an unknown earth shattering powers and other unexplainable talents. Thus the creation of the PR, or Piñata Resistance, an underground group of liberators whose goal was to not only keep the sours at bay, but to wipe them out forever. Sadly, the Piñata Resistance had no such abilities like the sours, but they had made up for it in strategy.

"Damn…" Falkor was left speechless, everyone knew the foolish infamy of the PDF.

"Yeah, in other words… We're gonna be on a suicide mission," Pandora said. Jorelo shook his head and spoke up.

"We can still make the best out of it, just stay out of the bombing range," his plan made them think the situation over a bit, but Pandora had soon killed it.

"…Isn't that going against orders?" The pretztail questioned him, Falkor sighed again soon after.

"She's right y'know," Falkor supported Pandora's side. The dark fudgehog took another drink of his soda before speaking.

"We can make something up if we get caught on the run, like we got off course because of strategic reposition or something," Falkor and Pandora looked at each other for a brief moment while thinking it over. "Besides…this isn't like Piñata Resistance to send us right into the battlefield anyway," Jorelo added.

"Hmm, you got a point…" Falkor was in deep contemplation, "…Should we just avoid contact from enemy and ally then?" Pandora looked over to Jorelo, letting him decide for all of them.

"…I think we should," Jorelo decided, "do you know where we're landing?" He looked over to Pandora as Falkor took a sip of his soda. Pandora shook her head and closed her eyes, knowing they would probably be informed of that at the last second.

"Nope," the pretztail responded, "but now I'm worried about that too…" Falkor began to get nervous as well as he was starting to question if he should just run away and hide from it all. Honesty, fighting from behind the lines was what PR had done best, what caused them to send mostly all of their troops right into the middle of it all?

Before anyone could say anything else a PA announcement clicked on with a synthetic female voice explaining that briefing would take place in a short while inside the aircraft hangars. The trio headed towards their new destination for their briefing, all knowing that it was too late to chicken out now.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4  
**

The soldiers of Piñata Resistance base 3-R were lined up one after the other in front of a giant stealth aircraft. The piñata in front of them all was shouting out their objectives and such. How they would load up into the aircraft, then how the aircraft would blend in with the bombers of PDF, but unlike the others, the aircraft would land. And lastly, How they'd fight off the sours and become heroes, though the piñata speaking made it suspiciously sound so easy, Piñata Resistance didn't make things easy, something was not right within the Piñata Resistance.

The piñata in front never mentioned how close they would be to the action, he never mentioned how the PDF would be bombing anywhere close to them. His chatter soon ended and the piñatas marched into the aircraft obediently. Jorelo, Pandora, and Falkor sat near the left wing close to the entrance. Jorelo has seated himself in the middle, with Falkor next to the window and Pandora near the edge of the aisle.

"Well, no going back now…" Jorelo mumbled, gazing out the window with a hopeless sigh. Pandora put a paw over his and looked at him.

"We can escape once we land Jorelo…" Pandora whispered, knowing treason of any kind could put them in much trouble.

"But-!" Falkor interjected, though he was cut off by Pandora.

"But nothing!" Her voice grew slightly louder as she retracted her paw back and faced herself over to Falkor, "if we want to keep our lives, we make a run for it when the time is right!" Pandora really didn't like the idea of getting ripped apart by sours or being blown up by bombs.

More Piñatas stepped into the aircraft in groups and wandered to random seats. Jorelo couldn't help but notice one of the fizzlybears in the refection of the window's glass. He turned around in his seat and looked at the strange multi-colored bear piñata. His eyes couldn't believe it, he rubbed them as if he were dreaming it all and wanted to see reality. The dark fudgehog really hoped it was a just dream, but unfortunately he still sat idly in his chair.

Falkor and Pandora began fighting over the upcoming issue, but Jorelo had flushed their voices out, he focused all his attention on the colorful fizzlybear. His patterns were arranged in a rainbow-like configuration. The bear piñata looked over at Jorelo as he somehow had the sixth sense that he knew he was being watched. Jorelo swiftly rotated his head back to the window. Everyone suddenly became quiet as the PA of the aircraft opened with static.

"We will be taking off shortly," a male voice casually said, "please remain seated and have your seat belts fastened," random chatter started up again soon after, but not nearly as loud as before. Pandora and Falkor continued their dispute, but Jorelo stopped it as soon as it started.

"As much as I hate to say it," Jorelo jumped into their quarrel, "I have to agree with Pandora," Falkor rolled his eyes and sighed, the forward motioning of the aircraft took the three by surprise. It had gained momentum and was off the ground in mere seconds.

Jorelo looked out of the window and over to the endless sea of grass, it soon was broken by a few trees here and there. A diverse mass of trees had eventually replaced the grass, Jorelo looked up a little higher, he could see a small town far away, most of the houses and buildings he got a good view of were burning with ominous fires. It was most likely that the sours have already raided through that town.

Was Piñata Resistance really ready to face the sours head on? Jorelo sure questioned it. His eyes scouted on ahead and saw the Cannoñata, the top of Piñata Central, or at least most of it, turns out a good amount of Piñata Central was turned to rubble. However, what lied below it was worse, Jorelo never imagined an outbreak of rebelling sours could be so devastating. And at ground level the PDF troops were getting slaughtered left and right. Jorelo wished the ship would turn tail and head back, but he knew that wouldn't happen no matter how bad it looked down there. It was then the aircraft began to descend into the chaotic mess.

"Well this is it," Falkor grew fearful with each passing second, "if we're to die today, I-," he was abruptly cut off by Pandora.

"We're not gonna die!" She shouted back at him angrily, Pandora would have drawn a great amount of attention, but the war below was doing a better job of keeping grasp of the other piñata's interest. One thing was true though, everyone in the aircraft was filled with fear. On coming fire from sour turrets and anti-aircraft missiles drove the fear further home. Jorelo ripped his sight away from the terror underneath them as the aircraft banked to the right to avoid most of the fire. Fortunately, the aircraft's jamming systems took care of the approaching missiles.

"Jorelo," Falkor chattered through his teeth, "you haven't said much this whole time…" Jorelo didn't pay much attention to his comment. they were nearing the ground and soon the side doors would open as they touch the ground. Jorelo, like many others, had taken off his seat beat as readied himself for anything. The aircraft was now just inches away from the ground, not much longer before all hell would officially break loose. As the sours came to swarm them with grenades and bullets. Many piñata's were already out of their seats with the guns aimed at the doors, ready for the assault.

"We should sit this one out!" Pandora instructed both fudgehogs to stand down, "…Dammit! Just take cover!" Pandora crouched behind the seats and out of sight from the sours, she doubted they'd get this far anyways. "_But there's tons of them out there, what can we do to stop it_?" she thought to herself. Jorelo and Falkor followed her example as the sidedoor's parted open without hesitation. "_Lets just hope for a miracle_…" Pandora wasn't able to hear herself think now that the sound of gunfire had entered her thoughts. Distance explosions could be heard growing closer as well.

"_The bombers!"_ Jorelo was still able to find the calm in the storm and think. The dark fudgehog refused to satisfy the urge to peek out of the window, he knew he would be most likely shot on sight if he did.

The blasting of the dropped bombs repeated and grew slightly louder each time they went off. PDF was really starting to be a pain in the ass, but it wasn't their fault, Piñata Resistance was the one to blame for their strategic positioning. This made Jorelo believe that the Piñata Resistance was giving up by sacrificing it's soldiers than trying to win this war. The fudgehog also had the idea that Piñata Resistance was probably not going to go down with a fight, was that their plan? Or were the piñata's back at the base who placed them here just flat-out insane? Jorelo was leaning towards the thought that they really were crazy.

The bombs grew even closer as it soon fought over the ruckus of bullets. The last bomb was dropped a mile or two ahead of them, the blast radius was sure to at least wipe out all the sours just outside and also many of the non-sour piñata's inside as well. Jorelo's began to lose consciousness as the ground below shook, growing more violent with each moment passing. The turmoil of it all tossed Jorelo into unconsciousness, leaving his two allies without a squad commander.


	5. Chapter 5

-1**Chapter 5**

Jorelo awoke to find himself back in the past again. Not a few seconds ago… Not hours… Not even days. He was back all the way in his childhood again. He was lying on the ground looking at the vivid blue sky above him. He forgotten the memories of Piñata Resistance, The sour onslaught, and all other remembrance that was of the future. Though it didn't really matter now, he was at peace with his surroundings and that was the only thing that mattered right now. A younger Pandora stood over him with eyes filled with eagerness.

"Jorelo, come on and play with me," she asked in a cutesy manner as Jorelo lifted his head up to become mesmerized by the playground surrounding him.

"But I'm watching the clouds," Jorelo became dizzy and lied back down as his comment enticed Pandora to look up into the sky, she saw not a cloud in sight.

"Um, I don't think the clouds came out today," Pandora countered as she looked back down to Jorelo.

"They're invisible," The dark fudgehog back his statement up with cleverness. An annoyed Pandora looked back down at Jorelo.

"No they're not Jorelo, they're just not there!" she argued back at him, "now push me on the swings," Jorelo let out a light groan after hearing her say that.

"…Do I have to?" He tired to talk his way out of it as he sat back up.

"Pleeeease…?" Pandora started to beg as Jorelo rolled his eyes in disgust of her attitude.

"Fine…" Jorelo gave in, he didn't like to refuse Pandora when she was persistent with him. The dark fudgehog stood up and followed Pandora to the nearest swing set while ignoring a group of other young piñata's running across their path, probably playing a game of tag or something similar to it. Pandora lifted herself onto the seat and waited for Jorelo.

"Ready?" Jorelo waited for her as he grasped the chains that held her up firmly.

"Uh-huh," Pandora nodded. Jorelo stepped back pulling the swing with him and then focused his energy at getting her into the air. Pandora let out a squeal of excitement as Jorelo got ready to intercept her again. The process had repeated itself over and over again, that is, until Jorelo was unexpectedly shoved onto the woodchips below by a fellow fudgehog, strangely this one had looked like Falkor, only some years younger now.

Jorelo cried out as his face and upper body scraped against the sharp ridges below. A red sap-like substance leaked out of a deep gash above Jorelo's right eye, the pain from the injuries evoked his patterns to dully glow faint gold

"Falkor!" Pandora shouted at the white fudgehog as she was already off the swing and helping Jorelo up to his feet, "can't you bully someone else?" Pandora yelled at the white fudgehog as Jorelo started to whimper in pain.

"Heh, picking on Jorelo's too much fun to pass up!" Falkor exclaimed as Pandora brushed the chips off of Jorelo's face and wiped his tears away.

"Just go away Falkor!" She shouted at him bitterly, "can't you see he's bleeding?"

"It's not my fault he's some kind of glowing freak," Falkor insulted Jorelo as he ripped the dark fudgehog from Pandora's grasp and forcefully sent him back into the woodchips before proudly marching off. The patterns on Jorelo's body had gotten noticeably brighter from the abuse. And Falkor, like many others, thought Jorelo's and Pandora's neon-like markings that they had were quite strange. Falkor deemed them as "freaks" for that reason alone.

What was unusual is that the two had no idea that their glowing patterns would soon stop appearing in the upcoming years. Both found it as a blessing to finally be able to return to normality when the time came.

Jorelo soon fell back into the darkness again. It wasn't until a few hours later he woke up in bed, this time the moon shined in his eyes.

"You're up!" The still younger Pandora exclaimed while giving Jorelo a hug out of no where. The dark fudgehog groaned loudly from the pain the embrace has ensued. Hearing this, Pandora let Jorelo go as the fudgehog lifted himself slowly to a sitting position. Jorelo sighed with relief once he was on the edge of the bed. Though he couldn't help but feel up the bandages that were wrapped around his head, and just the thought about the recent accident alone made him lightheaded.

"_What was all that about_?" He thought to himself, trying to keep his mind from replaying the scene in his head.

"How are you feeling Jorelo?" Pandora asked as Jorelo rubbed his forehead tenderly.

"My head hurts…" he stated the obvious, "what happened, did I have a bad dream?"

"No…" Pandora shook her head. The poor fudgehog just wanted to go back to sleep, he was fighting off the tiredness in him, but he could withstand it no more. Defeated by his own limitations, Jorelo fell back into the sheets without a fight. Pandora let out a sorrowful sigh. However, there was always tomorrow to talk to him. With tail drooped, the pretztail toddled back to her own bed to get some sleep herself. 

Jorelo soon woke up again, but not back in bed however. He had returned to the stealth aircraft, present time. The fudgehog felt up his forehead again and found there was thick blood dripping from a recent wound. Feeling dizzy, Jorelo blinked his eyes a few times to see more clearly as he carefully sat himself up.

"The hell…?" he mumbled to himself in sheer confusion as he caught a quick glimpse of the scene. Their aircraft was destroyed and its interior was tattered as were the other piñatas lying dead. And a rare few were lucky enough to still have a hide! However, two other piñatas were even more fortunate than their dead brethren. In front of the dark fudgehog stood a shadowy brown mallowolf and a familiar blue pretztail. The mallowolf held the pretztail firmly with a handgun to it's head, Jorelo could easily put the names to these faces. The mallowolf was Malak and the pretztail was Pandora.

"I see you're awake," Malak observed. The dark fudgehog still had trouble believing what he was seeing, what would cause Malak to do something like this, wasn't he with Piñata Resistance? Or did the base he was posted at had become corrupted as well? Jorelo stood up on both feet as Malak's gun clicked, readying the bullet for a violent expulsion. It's sickly sound made Pandora utter out a small whine for help. She was told if she screamed, she would be shot the moment Malak could hear it, but... Who else besides Jorelo would hear her anyways seeing as everyone else was dead? Maybe Malak just found enjoyment in others piñata's terror.

"Not another step Jorelo," Malak warned him, "or your girl gets it," he placed the barrel of the gun closer to Pandora's head that she could almost feel the cold steel touching her. The distance between Jorelo and Malak could be estimated around fifteen feet and Jorelo desperately wanted to close the distance and talk Malak out of whatever he was planning on doing to Pandora.

"She's not my girl," Jorelo countered back, "now let her go!" His comment made Malak scoff.

"You gonna make me?" The mallowolf said with a sinister smile on his face, "I striped you of your weapons fool, come on, see if you can kill me before I kill her," Jorelo checked himself over, and as expected, all of his equipment _was_ missing. The dark fudgehog glared back at Malak and gave him an unpleasant look.

"It's not like you to play dirty, what's your deal anyways? Have you betrayed the Resistance?" Jorelo shouted at his opposing friend as he was beginning to question if Malak was even sane anymore.

"I never was with Piñata Resistance!" Malak countered with a straight face, "I was working with the sours this whole time! And thanks to you I had gotten the coordinates of one of your stupid bases and it all went downhill for you guys since then!" Jorelo refused to listen to him. Was Malak just acting as Jorelo's friend this whole time? What caused him to do this? An army of thoughts ran through his head as he tried to piece the puzzle together.

"Y- you… How could you?" Jorelo scowled as the urge to knock the sense back into Malak grew, but the gun that was held to Pandora told him otherwise.

"How couldn't I," Malak replied, "I've envied you since the day I met you Jorelo!" Malak pointed the gun at him now, but still keeping a chocking grip on Pandora.

"Me?" Jorelo said, astonished by the mallowolf's answer, "but I always looked up to you Malak… You were like my big brother," Jorelo waited for Malak to pull the trigger on him as he directed his gaze at the ground in a depressed fashion.

"That's just like you Jorelo," Malak retorted resentfully, "getting upset when something goes wrong!" the mallowolf shoved Pandora to the floor and stomped off out of the ruined aircraft, but not before yanking Jorelo by the shoulder and forcing him down to Pandora's level as well.

The confused fudgehog questioned if it was act of sympathy or pity that Malak let them live. Jorelo was already too busy calming Pandora down to think about the matter. Somehow out of the mist of his thoughts, it just struck him… "_Where the hell was Falkor? Had Malak killed him_?" Jorelo decided to ask Pandora once she was able to think plainly. "…You know where Falkor is? Wasn't he with us when…" His voice trailed off. What _had_ happen during the time when he was out cold? It was even difficult for him to recall the gunfire and explosions.

"…I don't remember," Pandora said, "I was so frightened I think I drove myself into a coma," Pandora shook her head and added.

"I hope he's at least okay," many emotions ran through the conflicted fudgehog, but he didn't express them as he took in his surroundings better. His allies were blown across in many different places and in many different pieces, some with more than plenty of bullet holes in them. Not to mention the place reeked of the fruity scent of their blood, the majority of the chairs were scattered out of place and the walls around them were not only heavily dented but also had gaping tears and holes blasted through them. Jorelo didn't like the vibe this place gave off, plus the sound here was pretty much dead silence except for the howling of the wind. "Let's go look for him," Jorelo suggested while climbing to his feet, helping Pandora up to a standing position. However she didn't like the idea so much.

"But, it doesn't seem right," she started, "what if we run into Malak?" Pandora kept her mind on the negatives as Jorelo walked over to one of the holes in the wall, it was big enough for him to slip right through.

"Well… If you want, you can risk staying here and see if he comes back," Jorelo replied while working his way out of the aircraft. That statment got Pandora's noggin working. Malak probably would come back for them, well, not _for_ them, but to _kill_ them to be more exact. The pair might as well take the chance to find Falkor or anyone and anything else to aid in their survival.

"I guess you have a point…" Pandora mumbled and quickly nabbed a magnum from one of the downed piñatas before following him, best to be protected before heading out into the unknown. Once the pretztail made her way out she noticed Jorelo was already staring out into the horizon with his jaw dropped open, she had then saw the outcome of the bombing for herself, Piñata Central has lost what little beauty it still had left.


	6. Chapter 6

-1**Chapter 6**

The dust clouds in the air got caught in Pandora's lungs as she inhaled, causing her to forcefully cough the tainted air back up. The ground below them was cracked and ripped apart for miles. Barely any trees stood up from the broken soil, and the ones that did, had lost their leaves as well as their vibrant colors. Jorelo couldn't even call this Piñata Island anymore.

"It's a… Wasteland," Jorelo managed to get out quietly. The allergic pretztail could still hear him above the wind's whistling as she nodded in agreement, trying not to intake as much air this time.

"…Is the war… Over, Jorelo?" Pandora slowly asked as Jorelo gave her question some thought. Well if it wasn't over, the sours would surely use the land for more of their bases, concentration camps, and who knows what else they have. Jorelo started walking onwards in hopes of finding an answer.

"…I'm not sure," Jorelo admitted, not wanting to make assumptions. The cautious fudgehog avoided stepping into blood puddles or on torn up corpses while walking. Knowing he wasn't coming back, Pandora started following her friend from behind.

The two kept trudging on for a few more minutes without saying a word. One possibility for the cause of the silence was that Malak might hear them, or might even be stalking them, at least that's what Pandora thought. The other possibility would have to be that the war's outcome had taken most of their words away for the time being.

A brief glimmer on the ground had caught Pandora's eye. Overtaken by curiosity, she knelt down and snagged it. The object happened to be a dog tag from a downed piñata of the PDF, except the name on the tag had no connections to the PDF whatsoever. The imprint on the tag read: Jorelo. The name caused Pandora to giggle in disbelief, Jorelo wasn't in the PDF, and if he was he would have been dead like the rest of PDF's piñatas that were massacred. The clever pretztail decided to take it up with the fudgehog anyways as she stood up and rushed towards him.

"Hey Jorelo! You have to see this!" Pandora tried her best not to shout, however her excitement was in control for the time being. Hearing his friends voice, Jorelo turned around to be greeted with an metal oval hanging on a chain being shoved in his face, he pushed it aside with both paws hastily.

"What is it?" He growled, wondering what foolishness the pretztail was trying to pull this time. Pandora held it back up at a reasonable distance, letting Jorelo tear the chain out of her paws. The inquisitive fudgehog studied the steel tag for a few moments. "What's this suppose to be?" Jorelo asked as Pandora laughed at his confusion.

"I don't know," the pretztail shrugged her shoulders, "I just found it lying over there on the ground," she pointed in it's general direction as she smiled wildly, wanting to savor the reaction Jorelo gave, but he didn't give much of a memorable reaction.

"I guess Jorelo isn't a unique name after all… I thought I was the only one," Jorelo concluded, thinking who would name their child after that, soon wondering why he was named that and where the named originally came from. Pushing the thoughts aside, the fudgehog gave the dog tag back to Pandora. "Keep it I guess, it'll make a nice souvenir once we find our way back…" Jorelo added as Pandora followed his orders, but instead the resourceful pretztail wore it around her neck so she wouldn't lose it.

The dark fudgehog faced where he was originally walking towards to and saw something colorful in the distance, "_What the…_?" He question to himself, placing an arm above his eyes as a visor in an attempt to get a better look at the multicolored object. "Pandora… Can you see what's up ahead? I can't quite make it out," Jorelo asked the pretztail as she stood next to him and peered out into the distance to find the same decorated bump in the distance.

"…Looks all rainbow-y if you ask me," she replied. Her idea sparked Jorelo's memories of the rainbow fizzlybear he spotted out not to long ago, and the lump up ahead now seemed to look like just that.

"I think I might know what that thing is up ahead…" The fudgehog assumed as he started sprinting towards it, causing Pandora to bolt after him in an effort to stay together. The object ahead altered more into a fizzlybear with every step they took. Eventually the pair happened upon the Rainbow fizzlybear. The bear pinata was on his knees, hunched over something, completely unaware of two piñatas approaching behind him. Soon enough, he had heard their footfalls and turned his head around to get a glimpse of the pair.

"Hey! Heeey!" Jorelo shouted at the fizzlybear as he was closing the distance between. The fizzlybear spun the rest of himself around and waited for the two to get closer before speaking. Jorelo had come near face-to-face with the rainbow piñata and shot a question before even introducing himself. "You okay?" Jorelo asked as he scanned over the bear piñata's appearance. However, the teary-eyed fizzlybear sighed to himself before replying.

"I am, but my friend…" the large piñata scooted aside so Jorelo and Pandora could get a view of his friend, a female normal variant fizzlybear bleeding uncontrollably from various places, "she needs to get to a medic…" He let out another breath filled with hopelessness, wishing his new company could save her. Jorelo didn't find the sight in front of him to be a pretty picture at all as the dying fizzlybear was heaving up globs of blood, and by the looks of it, it already seemed too late to save her.

"Jorelo…" Pandora choked up as she gasped from the revolting spectacle.

"Wha-, what happened first of all?" Jorelo asked the colorful fizzlybear while eyeing over the wounded one.

"I was in hiding with Brook in the aircraft nearby," the fizzlybear started off, "I seen you guys there too, though both of you were out cold," Pandora and Jorelo exchanged looks with each other once he mentioned that fact. The dark fudgehog had drew up an idea of who was behind the slaughter of the fizzlybear.

"…Let me guess, a brown mallowolf came by?" Jorelo cut off the fizzlybear's story with his imput, his conclusion relying on recent events and a nagging hunch.

"Y-Yes! How'd you… You must have had a run in with him as well didn't you?" The fizzlybear assumed instantly.

"Yeah…" Pandora nodded her head, wondering why Malak would rip a fizzlybear to shreds but be too hesitant to put a bullet into a pretztail. 

"Anyways, forget that," the fizzlybear changed the subject, "would you guys happen to have any medical experience?" The bear piñata prayed that they did.

"I-, I'm sorry, we don't…" Jorelo cringed, hoping someone to come along who was, but he knew it had .

"I see…" the fizzlybear was left speechless as his bloody friend soon fell dead silent from the amount of blood she had lost.

The sun had soon left the piñatas to themselves as they got ready to brace the night. The bloody corpse was buried, complete with a makeshift rock tombstone. Their names were soon exchanged after the burial. Compushwa was the fizzlybear's name, however the dark fudgehog thought it sounded very unusual, but with a name like _Jorelo_, he had no right to argue.

Pandora and Jorelo agreed to take shifts staying on watch, in fear that Malak could have followed them here. The pretztail also mentioned about the magnum she took along the way, willing to share it with Jorelo whenever he took watch. Compushwa would have normally kept watch as well, but his emotional state prevented him from focusing. The pair took turns when the other couldn't keep their eyes open.

Each time Jorelo was on guard, he couldn't help but ponder where Falkor was, or if he was still alive. And every time Falkor came to mind, the fudgehog also recalled the younger Falkor from his dreams. Was this the same Falkor from his childhood? Jorelo didn't think _Falkor_ was a pretty popular name at all, but when he compared the two, their personalities were obviously different. Every second spend tossing around thoughts of Falkor in his head made him more tired as he decided to switch off and let Pandora take watch. Unfortunately, this put Jorelo in a perfect position for a rude awakening.

"Jorelo!" Pandora's voice shouted at him from a few feet away. "Wake up!" Jorelo had a hard time opening his eyes, all he wanted was a few more minutes of sleep, but the next statement convinced the fudgehog otherwise.

"You should listen to your piñata friend, wake up," a snobbish male's voice pierced the silence next and it had the most effect on getting Jorelo to fully awaken. The fudgehog sat himself up swiftly as Pandora got out of his way to reveal a taller, hooded, humanoid figure accompanied by a sour cocoadile and a sour mallowolf. Both sours were armed with assault rifles, already pointed and ready to shoot the fudgehog if they sensed hostility.

"…Yeah?" Jorelo wiped his eyes as he tried to figure out who this new person was, he couldn't help but let out a tired yawn. The humanoid was wrapped up in a black mage-like robe with the hood covering all but his mouth. The dark fudgehog took him as a human by how his body was shaped.

"Look… I'm here to make a deal with you, my boss wants to see you two, pronto, seems the boss sees something in you two that I apparently don't," he explained as Pandora helped Jorelo onto his feet. "In fact… I might even be able to aid your decision with this one," The dark figure took out what he had hidden behind his back. It was Falkor- and he was completely intact too! Unfortunately, he was unresponsive as he hung there limp inches above the ground while the dark figure held the fudgehog by his gigantic lump,

"Falkor!" Jorelo shouted and ran towards him but Pandora grabbed his arm and yanked him back.

"So that's it name then?" He wobbled Falkor around expressing that he was referring to the white fudgehog as _it_.

"Pandora! let go of me!" Jorelo turned towards her, trying to resist her grasp. Pandora shook her head, still holding the fudgehog tight.

"Jorelo, listen, this guy's not playing around," Jorelo thought back to the recent hostage situation Malak pulled off. The fudgehog sighed and nodded, understanding the situation he was dealing with. Seeing this, Pandora released his arm and had trusted he wouldn't run off.

"…What do you want, human," Jorelo, like most piñatas nowadays, didn't approve of humans, and this one seemed worse than the ones he had imagined.

"That's better," the dark figure took notice of Jorelo's obedience to Pandora's words, "Now, _Falkor_ here will live and be gratefully returned to you if you just come along… Jor-…Jor-"

"Jorelo," the fudgehog helped the figure with the name.

"Yes, thank you," The dark figure said in a sarcastic gratefulness, "so _Jorelo_, what is it going to be?" The conflicted fudgehog didn't want to join a faction that was bent on killing anything in their way, though he thought of the consequences that would be brought onto Falkor if he refused. Quick thinking brought Jorelo's attention back to the gun Pandora had earlier during the shift. Wondering if she still had it, the hopeful fudgehog turned around to see the pretztail possessed no such thing.

_ "Maybe Compushwa has it…_?_"_ The desperate fudgehog thought up an alternative to the situation to keep himself positive. Though Compushwa had been awfully quiet during this dilemma, in fact, Compushwa wasn't even there at all! The dark figure put out his free hand and twirled the magnum on his finger.

"Were you looking for this? Or was it for that repulsive fizzlybear?" The dark figure mocked him, already having them in checkmate. Jorelo quickly peeked over at Pandora and she returned his glance.

"…Can I discuss this with Pandora for awhile in private?" Jorelo asked. The dark figure drew his head back and rolled his eyes, if you had the ability to see them that is...

"Fine-fine, Just no funny business, five minutes- I'll be watching from afar," the dark figure left the two as he and his posse vanished with Falkor still in his grasp. The fudgehog faced himself completely towards Pandora before speaking.

"So what do you think?" Jorelo asked his friend, though unlike Jorelo, Pandora didn't care much of what was to be Falkor's fate, but seeing the overly worried look in Jorelo's eyes had made her rethink the situation. Falkor, after all, was Jorelo's second best friend since Jorelo and Malak lost much of their connection once Piñata Resistance came into play, and the encounter with Malak yesterday really didn't make them any closer despite their distance.

"Well… What were you planning on doing?" Pandora threw the question back, "I'll support your decision Jorelo, no matter what," she was expecting Jorelo to accept the dark figure's terms and go with him to see their boss, whoever that may be.

"…I don't really like the looks of this guy," Jorelo scratched the back of his head, hoping to find some silver lining in this demanding situation.

"Jorelo… What about Falkor?" Pandora added while becoming perplexed with what Jorelo was going to choose.

"…Don't worry about him," Jorelo replied, looking back to where the human used to stand, "I know what I'm doing," Pandora wanted to reach out to tap Jorelo on the back, it felt to her as if he had been in a trance and only she could break him out of, but alas, Jorelo was really thinking about Falkor's life rather than his own. The human and his sour guards reappeared as the final seconds Jorelo and Pandora had alone together past.

"So…" The figure started, "have you made your decision?" Jorelo nodded making Pandora feel useless to change the fudgehog's mind. To her, it was already too late.

"Take me instead of Falkor!" Jorelo blurted out, offering himself over, "just me, leave Pandora out of this," the pretztail's jaw dropped, she couldn't believe what Jorelo was doing, and for Falkor, someone who deserved the worse of fates in her eyes.

"Jorelo! No!" Pandora screamed at him, "if you go, I go too!" She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the fudgehog, her decision was final as well. The human was pleased with this, and his leader would be overjoyed with the outcome as well.

"Then we'll all go to back together! I'll leave _Falkor_ in your care once we're there…" The human informed them as Jorelo turned to face Pandora. The pretztail still looked quite ticked off in his perspective.

He leaned over to whisper in her ear, "we'll make it out of there alive, I promise," he pulled back away from Pandora as her anger had left her completely. She grabbed Jorelo's paw and smiled slightly, as she knew Jorelo never broke his promises no matter how ridiculous they sounded. Jorelo returned the smile with more enthusiasm as they began to fade into thin air.


	7. Chapter 7

-1**Chapter 7**

Jorelo was instantly trapped inside another dream. This time however, he was in a classroom, back in his childhood days again.

Pandora sat in a desk next to him, uncontrollably staring at him in a dreamily manner. Jorelo shook his head and focused back on the teacher, who was writing random math equations on the chalkboard while explaining how to solve them.

The bored fudgehog soon fell back to daydreaming, having no interest in class or shcool for that matter. Jorelo was completely unaware of Malak, who was sitting in the back row cussing at the oblivious fudgehog under his breath.

The class bell soon rang and the handful of the students poured out of the door. Some pushed others out of their way while a few waited for the crowd to pass. That said few happened to be Jorelo, Pandora, Falkor, and Malak.

"Well now that the school day's over, you wanna go to the playground Jorelo?" Pandora called from across her desk while gazing at her friend with puppy dog eyes, hoping it would push Jorelo into giving in. Jorelo glanced out the window, the weather looked quite nice outside, why waste it?

"Sure," he responded as Pandora stood up and took a hold of his paw in hers, but Jorelo didn't feel like holding paws together, though he hadn't pulled away because he knew Pandora would turn gloomy the second he recoiled it.

Malak thoroughly watched the pair leave the classroom. After they were out of sight, he had quickly examined the room around him, surveying his surroundings for another pinata. However, the only piñata he could spot happened to be Falkor. Since it was just the two of them, Malak decided this was the perfect chance to execute one of his little schemes and had decided to utilize the white fudgehog.

"Hey, fudgehog," Malak greeted Falkor as he stopped in front of the fudgehog's desk. An angered Falkor looked up at him, already in a bad mood as it is.

"What?" He retorted bitterly, wanting to be left alone. The conniving mallowolf decided to make things worth the fudgehog's while. Malak set a soccer ball sized bag filled with chocolate coins on his desk.

"It's all yours if you do me a favor…" Malak offered. The enticed fudgehog was listening, there was a nice lump sum of coins there, probably enough for the fudgehog to pig out on a day's worth of candy, and that's quite a lot in Falkor's case.

"…What is it?" Falkor asked as his mood changed drastically. A pay this big must require a large job to be done. That or the mallowolf was being awfully generous. The fudgehog listened to what was needed to be done.

"Those two freaks that left the classroom," Malak started, "I believe you know them… Right?" Falkor nodded slightly, looking at Malak with slight apprehension.

"…Sorta," He replied hesitantly, because nobody was really friends with the two piñatas, what was only known of them was that they had existed and their _uncontrollable_ _glowing_ _problems_.

"Well, make the fudgehog cry," Malak nudged the bag towards the fudgehog, "do whatever you have to do," Malak added as Falkor carefully grabbed the bag, quickly storing it in his desk for safekeeping.

"This won't be too long…" The fudgehog replied, running out of the class. Malak headed towards the window and gazed steadily out of it. He could see Pandora and Jorelo easily from where he stood. It made him enraged seeing them so happy, he would have beaten Jorelo up himself, but he had future plans to break them emotionally and physically harder than whatever Falkor could dish out.

Pandora was giggling wildly on the swing with Jorelo pushing her into the air. Malak soon caught sight of Falkor entering the picture, going in for the kill. The rowdy fudgehog shoved Jorelo over onto his side, by that moment Malak became unsure if this was the way to go. Was violence the only way to handle this situation? Couldn't he just say he hated them right to their face and go on with life? No, life didn't work out that way, especially for Malak.

Before he knew it, the white fudgehog was already heading back towards the entrance of the school. The astonished mallowolf was impressed with Falkor's quick work, or was Jorelo just plain weak? Either or, the job got done, that was all that mattered. The white fudgehog made his way back into the classroom.

"All done," he announced as he sat back in his chair while Malak had headed for the door.

"Good, I'll take it from here," Malak waved the fudgehog off as he left the classroom and the school. The Mallowolf was just outside the entrance when he took notice of a big crowd surrounding the area where Jorelo was harassed. Malak cringed as he hoped Falkor didn't _kill_ Jorelo, that would put them both behind bars. His walk quickly turned into a sprint as Malak wished that Jorelo was at least breathing, he didn't think he would get into any trouble if the fudgehog was just hurt, Falkor could take all the heat for all Malak cared.

"Somebody!" A very young female voice cried within the group, "he's not moving!" Malak began to worry as he picked up his steps even more.

"Don't just stand there!" The voice cried again, "You have'ta help him!" Malak arrived right outside the group, it didn't take him long to force his way in. the mallowolf had to restrict himself from gagging. Jorelo had many cuts and bruises around his body, not to mention the unusual glowing his patterns gave off. What really made Malak's stomach churn was the deep gouge over Jorelo's forehead. That was going to leave a mark that's for sure. The regretful mallowolf got down on himself for not telling the fudgehog to take it easy, though he didn't think something like this would happen.

"Let's get him home," Malak said unwillingly to the blue pretztail hunched over Jorelo, "his parents'll help him," he picked up Jorelo and carried him like someone would carry an infant. The mallowolf was pretty strong, one of the reasons why he didn't want to do the dirty work because he could have risked killing Jorelo in a blind rage. He pushed his way back out of the crowd with Pandora sobbing a trail right behind him. What Malak was unaware of was that the white fudgehog was watching the aftermath once Malak left the classroom. The scene really made him think, was the mallowolf taking him to an alleyway to finish the job? Or was he just feeling sorry for him? The fudgehog believed the first choice was more realistic seeing as he weakened him up.

"Falkor!" An older male voice called from the hallways, "It's time to go home!" Falkor shoved his thoughts away for the time being, it really wasn't his business anyways.

He yelled back, "hold on! I'm coming!" The fudgehog retrieved his bag of coins and ran out the door like there was no tomorrow. 

Jorelo soon awoke to a few firm slaps on the sides of his face.

"Ow! Hey! Quit it!" He shouted as he began flailing his arms everywhere, trying to grab on to the source that was striking him across the face, "what's the deal?" he opened his eyes and saw Pandora perched on top of him.

"Finally, I thought you'd never wake up!" She sighed in relief. The awkward fudgehog slipped out from under her and sat himself up as he rubbed his raw face with his paws.

"Oooh…" Jorelo groaned from the pain, "how long was I out for?" He asked her curiously as he looked around his new surroundings, the room inside was pretty spacious. Everything in the place seemed pretty fancy to him, a little _too_ fancy for his tastes, but he could live with it.

"Ah… I'd say about a few days," she finished with a sinister grin. Jorelo's eyes extended wide open with shock.

"What?" Jorelo cried out in confusion, "why didn't you wake me up soo-!" Pandora cut him off.

"I'm only kidding Jorelo," Pandora laughed her tail off, "you've been asleep for a few hours, seems you don't take well to teleporting seeing as you passed out right after," She said, putting her paws to her hips and giving him that strict motherly look as if he should have known better, but it wasn't Jorelo's fault that he fainted from the abnormal trip.

"Wait… Where are we?" Jorelo asked as Pandora rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Weren't you paying attention? We're at the sour's headquarters now, and in the best room in the house, as Marly put it," Pandora explained.

"Marly?" Jorelo questioned, "who's that?" He tried to think of who that was, but no one he knew had that name.

"The human who brought us here," Pandora said, climbing off of the bed.

"Oh… Him," Jorelo muttered, "and Falkor, where is he?" the dark fudgehog needed to know where he was, he had to make sure Falkor was completely safe as promised.

"In the interrogation chambers," the pretztail said while trying to hold back another round of laughter, but it was no use, she started up once again.

"Tell the truth Pandora…" Jorelo scowled at her as he was in no mood for games.

"Oka-a-ay… He's in the hot tub," Pandora revealed the truth this time even though she thought Jorelo probably wouldn't buy that either.

"H-hot tub?" Jorelo recited, "why would there be a hot tub in a place so… Evil?" The fudgehog was questioning if most piñatas here just sat on their asses bathing while their allies had gone out killing.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Pandora shrugged her shoulders, "but we're like royalty here, so who cares?" The pretztail giggled as Jorelo scooted closer to the edge of the bed, "you know, there's another tub, I'll be in there if you want to come join me," she offered to him with a suggestive wink.

"I'll think about it," Jorelo chuckled uneasily, he still had to get his thoughts straight on what just happened. For all he knew the sours could have wanted them as a sacrifice to their leader, but Jorelo doubted that, there must have been a better reason than that.

"…Okay then," Pandora quietly sighed as she walked into one of the many rooms, feeling a bit dejected. The door had closed behind her as Jorelo fell back in bed and rested some more, he began dreaming once again.

Jorelo was back in his room at his childhood home. His eyes blinked open to the night as he lifted himself to a sitting position. The sleepy fudgehog rubbed his forehead, realizing he had an enormous headache. The thoughts of the recent hassle at the playground returned to him as he delicately patted the bandages on his head, however the memory left him instantly as his ears picked up something crying in another room.

The cry was very young, Jorelo was pretty sure it was Pandora. Wasting no time, he worked himself out of bed and limped steadily over to his door and peeked out. No one was in the halls, and Pandora's room was straight across from his. The door had squealed a bit as he peeled it open slowly, the sobbing had stopped momentarily and resumed shortly after.

The stealthy fudgehog snuck across the hallway and peeked into Pandora's door. Like Jorelo's door, hers too needed to be oiled as it squeaked louder than his. Pandora's crying stopped abruptly from the noise.

"W-Who's there?" She exclaimed cautiously towards the door, Jorelo pushed it completely open, not caring if he woke anyone else up.

"It's just me Pandora…" Jorelo announced softly as he hobbled over to the pretztail's bed, oblivious of the mess of toys below him. It took just one wrong step for Jorelo to find himself instantly on the ground, making quite a ruckus.

"Jorelo!" Pandora cried out, "you gotta be more careful!" The lazy pretztail wasn't one to keep her room neat. The injured fudgehog let out a long, painful groan as he attempted to climb back to his feet. Pandora hopped out of bed and rushed to Jorelo's aid. "You should be in bed resting anyways," she lectured him on his disobedience.

"But..." Jorelo had ignored her advice, "…You were crying," the persistent fudgehog tired to ignore the pain as best as he could, "what's wrong?" Pandora froze and shivered at what her friend said.

"I… I think someone was watching me," her speech was slurred by her clattery teeth, "through my window, it was scary lookin'!" She grasped onto Jorelo, making the pain spike up and the gravity push down on him.

"P-P-Pandora," he tried to get out, "you're, hurting me…" Pandora ignored him and cried into his shoulder. Jorelo was left to deal with most of the pain and focus more on cheering Pandora up, "Pandora…" he had a difficult time speaking, "do, you know who was... Watching you?" Pandora shook her head against the fudgehog, making him almost lose his balance and fall again.

"No-o-o!" She continued sobbing as a door from down the hall opened, pouring out a pair of footfalls that started to approach them. Jorelo knew it was one of their foster parents probably coming up to see what the problem was. No amount of desire could push Jorelo to overcome the pain and make it back to bed in time.

"Pandora!" the worried fudgehog started to whisper, "we gotta get... Back in bed!" Jorelo knew it was already too late, but he could at least get Pandora back into bed and take all the blame himself.

"Jorelo…" a firm adult male voice called out, "what are you doing up so late?" Jorelo knew he was already busted.

"N-nothing dad!" Jorelo put a gentle paw over Pandora's muzzle to hush her cries, "Pandora just had a bad dream," he tried to shoo his foster father out of their business, "I'm just keeping her company," Jorelo glanced back at the door and caught sight of his fizzlybear father.

"Okay… But you have fifteen minutes before I come back and check," the fizzlybear said, "and if you're not in bed by then, I'll make sure you both are," even though their caretakers were nice, Jorelo wasn't very fond of them as they just didn't see things the way him or Pandora did.

"Okay dad…" Jorelo mumbled while wiping Pandora's tears away, but the fizzlybear was already heading back to his own bed and probably didn't hear him. The shaken pretztail had settled down once the door down the hallway had shut close.

"J-Jorelo…" Her voice trailed off, she was still teary eyed.

"What…?" Jorelo questioned, wondering if she had finally gotten over her problems.

"I…I can't stay here," Pandora shook her friend as she started to raise her voice, "Jorelo! That thing's coming for me! Don't you see?" Jorelo cut her off before she got too loud.

"Pandora- shhhh, you have'ta be quiet," Jorelo whispered, as he did his best to lead her back to bed. However Pandora shoved him away.

"I can't stay…" Pandora's tears began to stream down her cheeks even faster, "but, I can't leave without you…" She said hopelessly, looking down towards the floor, trying to avoid eye contact. Pandora usually needed Jorelo when it came to things like this, Pandora wouldn't be where she was now if it wasn't for him.

"Where are you gonna go?" Jorelo asked her, wondering if it'd really be safe for them to be out this late at night.

"S- Somewhere…" Pandora was unsure of herself as Jorelo shook his head, he knew she didn't plan this out at all.

"Pandora, what if that… Thing gets you out there too?" Jorelo countered, and what Pandora heard from him made her want to scream while tear herself inside out, but luckily she only kept shedding tears.

"Jorelo…" She whimpered as if Jorelo spoiled it all for her. The sympathetic fudgehog parted the hair out of the weeping pretztail's eyes.

"Look, you can sleep with me," Jorelo offered her some comfort, "I'll make sure that monster won't touch a single hair on you," despite the fragile fudgehog's physical state he would still defend her until his body could do so no longer. Pandora put her trust in his words as she nodded and helped Jorelo back into his room, she couldn't bear to see him limp back by himself.

"Thank you…" Pandora sighed in relief as her tears finally stopped. She assisted him into bed first before climbing in herself. Once they were snug in bed, they exchanged their good nights and shut their eyes. Jorelo was the first to fall asleep, though it took Pandora a bit longer. The fearful pretztail grabbed onto Jorelo for support and fell into a deep slumber.


	8. Chapter 8

-1**Chapter 8**

Jorelo woke up from the dream on his own this time, back to the fancy décor of the sour headquarters. The drowsy fudgehog stretched out his arms as far as they would go and let out a lengthy yawn. He wondered how long he had slept for as he searched of a clock. The clock next to him had shown ten forty-five A.M.

It didn't really matter though. Nothing in this life did when he thought about it now. The PDF bombings destroyed everything that he lived for, fought for… Well… Not everything, there was still Pandora, and truth be told, if she was gone, Jorelo would probably be unable to live another day. Maybe things still did mattered to Jorelo.

As the groggy fudgehog pulled himself out of bed he started to ponder if Pandora and Falkor were still relaxing in the hot tubs. He could use a nice cold shower himself, but before he could even _think_ about getting into the shower the door to the main hallway flew open as a male pretztail of normal color swiftly emerged from the doorway.

"…Can I help you?" Jorelo asked the Pretztail, unsure of whether or not this was a friend or foe that came in.

"I need to hide- Anywhere will do!" The pretztail looked around the room as Jorelo studied him over.

"_Hmm, he's not a sour… Maybe he's kept as a prisoner here_? _Seeing as he's in a hurry to hide…_" Jorelo thought to himself. "May I ask why?" Jorelo tilted his head as the Pretztail scouted the room for a decent hiding space.

"I just broke out of my cell! The guards'll be up here at any moment!" He explained to them without making any eye contact.

"Look, I just woke up an-" Jorelo was cut off from another door opening. Steam rolled out as Falkor stepped through it all, wearing a towel around his lower torso.

"Hey! I see you're up Jor, h-" Falkor took notice of the stranger in the room, he couldn't help but eyeball him for a few seconds, "…Who's your new friend?" Falkor himself was surprised to see another free _normal_ piñata alive after hearing about the bombing earlier, he would have been an eyewitness of it too, but Marly had different plans for Falkor. In fact why not go back and see it right through Falkor's eyes? 

The white fudgehog was crouched low inside the aircraft behind Jorelo and Pandora who were shielding themselves by using the seats in front of them. The gunfire was slowly being drowned out by the oncoming explosions and quakes of the bombs. Falkor's sight soon focused itself on the gleaming golden patterns that shimmered on Jorelo and Pandora as they fell into a comatose.

"What the…" His voice trailed off as he was starting to recall the markings he had seen during his childhood. Falkor forgot most of his past once he escaped that troubled life, but now he could feel them creeping back again.

The memories had soon restored themselves in the fudgehog's mind. Falkor couldn't believe what his eyes were seeing, he never thought he'd see the two _freaks_ again now that he came to recognize them. The desperate fudgehog wanted to wake them from their coma, but the oncoming blast of the bombs arrived to sweep them away and all was history.

Well… Not exactly as we've come to know now that the three survived the explosions. Falkor was captured by Marly in an instant as the hoarse, dying screams of the sours entered his ears, Jorelo's and Pandora's _would be_ doom was near, but something unknown was keeping them alive. Something that was kept secret for so long, a secret about to be revealed in the imminent moments ahead of them.

An unconscious Falkor was taken to one of the many integration room inside of the sour headquarters. It took a few minutes for the fudgehog to return to his senses.

"Wha-… What is this?" Falkor managed out in a confused rage as he scanned the room around him in a nasty glare.

"My my, someone's cranky after their nap," Marly mocked the fudgehog, "maybe you need another?" His sarcasm showed as Falkor tried to get at Marly to teach him a thing or two about manners, but the restraints around his waist and arms prohibited him from doing that.

"Why you little-!" Falkor growled as his anger return along with more of his past memories, even the problems he had as a child.

"Back talk like that gets you a time out piñata!" Marly scolded the fudgehog as he pressed one of the numerous buttons on the wall. Falkor felt a sharp needle jam into his left arm without any mercy. 

"O-o-w!" He hollered and caught a glance of a robotic arm holding a syringe packed with a bright red fluid that was being injected in his arm. Marly let out light sinister snicker while Falkor fell fast asleep from the dosage he received. It was soon after that Marly used Falkor as ransom to capture Jorelo and Pandora and all that eventually brought them back to where they stood now, but let's still stick with Falkor's story a little bit longer. 

Falkor awoke in a jail cell in the basement of the sour headquarters. It looked somewhat like a dark, medieval dungeon crossed with modern day prisons. The apprehensive fudgehog assessed his cell and surroundings while he got off his stone cold bed. A sour macaracoon appeared from the shadows beyond the light and greeted Falkor acrimoniously behind the bars.

"You're wanted in the higher floors," the sour informed the fudgehog bitterly as he opened the cell door and welcomed himself in. Falkor believed that this was going to be the end of his life, but he didn't fight back, he couldn't. If he did there would be hell to pay, there were a countless number of sours and only one of him, and this was no action movie where the protagonist always wins. No, this story is far from it. 

Falkor let the sour bind him in an assortment of steel restraints, including a muzzle that was custom fit for a fudgehog. The stressed out fudgehog sighed as he was led out of his cell. Along the way, he was given rude comments by the other prisoners there. He tried his best not to take notice, but curiosity forced him to glance at a few. Most of the prisoners were from either Piñata Resistance or PDF. The confined piñatas were starved, deformed, and some were missing body parts like legs, arms, and such.

The fear really started to tickle up and down the frightened fudgehog's spine when he saw how his fellow piñata's went through the sour's merciless experimentation in the nearby labs. Some of them were half normal and half sour, foaming feverishly at the mouth. Others had patches of their mache missing, or their pupils dilated along with heavily bloodshot eyes, the majority of them leaped onto the bars of their cells as they snarled and growled furiously at the horrified fudgehog.

Fortunately for Falkor, this was far from his fate, but the fear still had shown in his eyes. The two soon ended their horrendous walk in front of a fairly large elevator. The sour elbowed Falkor aside and pressed one of the buttons on the wall panel. The bulky doors parted open as the sour grabbed Falkor by the chains to his muzzle restraint and yanked him inside. They were consumed inside as the elevator closed shut, rising skywards as the sour requested for the top floor.

The trip to the top floor felt like forever, luckily Falkor's thoughts kept him entertained for the time being. The contemplative fudgehog kept thinking about Jorelo and Pandora, the thought of them agitated him slightly. Memories back at the playground started to haunt him more than anything, he wish he could have taken all of what he done in the past back. The two piñatas weren't as bad as he thought they were. The Falkor of the past was wrong about both of them in every way. Feeling heavily remorseful, Falkor believed he would never be able to face them the same way ever again.

Falkor was finally released from his bindings when the sour brought him inside the suite room. The fudgehog was free to do whatever until further orders were given. Falkor saw that Jorelo was sleeping on a nicely sized bed with Pandora standing by his bedside. The keen pretztail heard the shackles being removed as her eye sight guided her towards the white fudgehog.

"Falkor!" Pandora shouted, running towards him without a care if it had woken up Jorelo or not, "you're alive!"

"…Of course I am," Falkor shrugged as he was unexpectedly embraced by Pandora, however with the nagging thoughts going through his head about the past mistakes made him want to push Pandora off of him, but he pushed the thoughts away instead.

"I was afraid that sir-what's-his-face wasn't going to keep his promise," Pandora sighed joyfully as she pulled herself away from Falkor.

"…Jorelo still sleeping?" Falkor asked as he raised himself on his toes to look over Pandora and at the snoozing Jorelo.

The pretztail nodded and glanced back at Jorelo, "he's been that way since we got here, which is like two hours give or take…"

"Hmm… I'm still kind of feeling beat, I might get some rest myself," Falkor stretched himself out while eyeing up one of the beds next to Jorelo's.

"Why not look around for awhile? There's a lot of neat things around here," Pandora suggested to him with an eager smile.

"Hm? …I guess a quick tour wouldn't hurt," the fudgehog decided.

Pandora pointed out a random door in the room, "go on, you might like what's behind that door over there," she chuckled as Falkor obeyed, walking towards said door.

"Holy crap!" Falkor yelled as he realized what was behind the door, "a hot tub?" He closed the door behind him and not a word was said after. Letting out a depressive sigh, Pandora returned to watching over Jorelo.


	9. Chapter 9

-1**Chapter 9**

"…Uh, he's not my friend," Jorelo said, shaking his head at Falkor.

"Well then who is this guy?" Falkor asked him, pointing his thumb at the pretztail as he interjected into the conversation, "I'm from PDF, but that's not important right now! You have to hide me! They could be looking in here any second!" Falkor glared at the eluding pretztail with anger. The fudgehog had a buring passion of hated for the PDF for what they did back at Piñata Central, that bombing was completely unnecessary in his opinion. Falkor wanted to take his anger out on the pretztail, but fortunately for everyone's sake, he contained himself.

"Well one of the many doors here will do just fine for a hiding place," Jorelo offered as he motioned at the doors behind Falkor. Without another word the pretztail bolted behind one them and shut the door behind him.

"What the hell was that all about?" Falkor wondered as he focused on Jorelo,

"I dunno," he shrugged and shook his head. 

Falkor shot another question at him, "seen Pandora anywhere?" Jorelo took the time to think it over.

"…Um, yeah, she was in the other hot tub room last I heard," Jorelo answered, "why? Is something up? If this is to pull another joke-" the concerned fudgehog was instantly cut off.

"No, just wondering. I wanna ask her how long the stay is here, and if we're paying," the comment made Jorelo smile a bit.

"I have no idea, we were just brought here for the time being, I know it's a nice place and all, but knowing that the place being run by the sours and all gives me bad vibes… Y'know," Jorelo admitted as Falkor nodded.

"I get'cha… So are we paying or not?" He joked. making Jorelo laugh halfheartedly.

"Of course we're not paying." Jorelo stated the obvious. Falkor noticed that Marly was peeking into room from the hallway door.

"You!" Falkor shouted as he appeared ready to rip the human a new one, but he had second thoughts of beating him up knowing what Marly was capable of.

"Me!" Marly mocked as Jorelo turned around and pointed at him with eyes filled with puzzlement.

"…Marly, right?" He tried not to guess. Marly nodded, confirming that the dark fudgehog was correct.

"Anyways, the boss is ready to see you now," Marly informed them, "…Where's the blue one?" He surveyed the area looking for _the blue one_.

"You mean Pandora?" Jorelo helped Marly out with _the blue one's_ name.

"Is that what you call her?" Marly questioned the dark fudgehog with a visage that read: "_What a weird name for a piñata_," Marly continued on, "Well go retrieve her and meet me by the boss's quarters, and don't take too long either," the human had retracted his head back from the doorway and started walking off. Following orders, Jorelo had gone over to the door that Pandora had entered earlier and knocked on it.

"Pandora?" Jorelo called out beyond the door… No answer, Jorelo knocked slightly harder.

Pandora shouted back, "yeah, yeah, I heard Marly, I'm already getting ready," it didn't take her too long to get out.

"So, we all ready?" Jorelo asked the other two.

"Yup," Pandora verified as Falkor bobbed his head. the trio left their suite and journeyed down the hall, leaving the escaping pretztail to rule the room for now. 

The tiresome walk there was longer than they expected, but before they reached their destination, Falkor thought it would be a funny idea to whip Pandora's rear with the towel he was wearing. And that action landed him in a heap of trouble as the enraged pretztail tackled and pinned the ill-prepared fudgehog to the ground, ready to beat his face in. And it would have happened too if it wasn't for Jorelo to break their ugly quarrel up. Eventually all three arrived at the door, and in one piece. The door was monstrous compared to their size.

"…Should we knock first?" Pandora questioned as she turned to Jorelo for an answer.

"Nah, they're expecting us, I think we'll be fine just entering," Jorelo reached for the door lever, but it turned without him touching it. They were surely expecting them that's for certain, the door would have been locked otherwise.

Jorelo was impressed when he saw the inside of the room, the interior of this room beat the PR base leader's room by a long shot. Royal red rugs with golden fluff outline, the chairs looked like jeweled thrones in some sort of magnificent castle, and the glimmering multi-tan tiling was really eye catching. Jorelo could stare endlessly at this sight in an amazed hypnosis, but there were far greater matters to attend to as the group welcomed themselves in. Marly was the first to greet them, and quite rudely at that.

"What kept you?" Marly scoffed at them, glaring at the three suspiciously.

Pandora made an excuse to counter it, "We _would_ have been here on time if it wasn't for Falkor!" Marly sighed irritably and let them of the hook, for now. If they were late it wasn't his place to worry about it. That issue was up to the leader of the sours.

"Hm…" I new, chilling voice chimed in, "As long as you are all here, I have nothing to be concerned about," the voice came from a rear facing chair from behind the main desk, "Marly, you may show yourself out now," and he did without another word as the doors closed automatically behind him. The chair twirled halfway around to meet the visitors, the leader of the sours had finally revealed herself to the three.

The leader of the sours was a pinata herself. A golden pretztail to be more precise. Her icy eyes had scanned over each one individually, one after the other, beginning with Pandora and ending with Falkor.

"Um…" Jorelo tried to come up with a question, unfortunately the golden pretztail cut him off.

"You may call me Prisca," Prisca announced to Falkor with a distastefulness in her eyes. The bitterness left as she set her emotionless gaze on Jorelo and Pandora, "as for you two… You may call me mother," this comment made Jorelo and Pandora extremely perplexed. Was this the reason Prisca wanted them in the first place, but why now? Why not earlier?

_ "Mother_…" Jorelo thought to himself, "_my real mother died years ago… That's what my foster parents told me_," he didn't buy the golden pretztail's story one bit. Pandora exchanged looks with Jorelo and looked back to Prisca.

"But, our real parents-" Pandora started but Prisca rudely interrupt.

"Yes, I apologize. I would have raised you both myself, however I had much more important tasks to finish at the time. I entrusted you two with set of parents while I was hard at work," Jorelo still wasn't bought. Pandora, however, wanted to know more.

"…So everything we've been told up to this point was just lies?" Pandora gawked at the golden pretztail in a sense of disbelief. The poor pretztail really wished what she heard wasn't true, there had to be another explanation. She knew her parents weren't the same as Jorelo's of course, he was a fudgehog and she herself was a pretztail. But Prisca nodded at Pandora, signifying that she was correct.

"For the most part, yes…" Prisca replied. Falkor had the urge to sit down, but some force unknown kept him standing in once place. Prisca could see him trying to struggle loose, but it was the least of her problems, so she chose to ignore his feeble efforts.

"But what about Jorelo, shouldn't he have fudgehogs for parents?" Pandora countered, in hopes to prove Prisca's point wrong. The golden pretztail shook her head before going on.

"You two were my last living creations," the golden pretztail informed them with an emotionless smile. Jorelo didn't like how the word _creations _rolled off her tongue… _Creations_… The word hit him cynically as he pondered it over.

"Creations… What are you tying to get at?" He questioned, tilting his head to the side as he still tried to put the pieces together.

"Jorelo… Pandora…" Prisca recited their names as she gazed at them separately, "you both are my weapons of destruction, my goal was to eradicate the piñatas and start anew… Using you two," it was nearly impossible for Pandora to take what was recently said into thought. But she now realized, the markings, those _damned_ golden markings, they weren't just there for looks after all. The hopeless pretztail tried to hold back the tears, she wanted a real mother, not some cold tyrant.

"W-Why?" Pandora made an effort to speak, but her throat was already constricted by the tears welling up in her eyes, "I d-don't want to k-kill everyone," she could control the tears no longer.

"Worry no longer Pandora," Prisca reassured her supposed daughter, "the piñatas have nearly wiped themselves out, the war alone has done your job," Jorelo couldn't help but cut in with negativity.

"So you mean our purpose was already fulfilled? What are we suppose to do now?" Not that Jorelo wanted to keep killing, but he did think it was ill planning that Prisca created them to eventually find out everything took care of itself.

"There's nothing you _can_ do, so just relax my children," Prisca attempted to calm them down, "feel free to do as you wish from now on… As long as you are behaving yourselves. If you get in my way, I will make you regret ever doing so, understand?" The three nodded apprehensively at her, "until I call upon you again, the time is yours to spend."

Falkor could feel the blood rushing back into the rest of his body. In a relief, the white fudgehog flexed out his muscles and stretched his limbs out briefly before they left Prisca's presence.

All three of them walked back to the suite without saying another word. It wasn't that they had nothing to say, they had loads upon loads of questions to get off their mind, but each kept to themselves as if it was forbidden to bring up such matters.

Jorelo opened the door to the suite and had gone over to the window for a quick sightsee, the bright moon shined over his face, he couldn't help but let out a wearing sigh. The perceptive fudgehog also noticed the time had gone by so fast without warning, how long was that talk? A few minutes? Half hour? Something was definitely up, but he pushed it all aside for the moment.

"Jorelo…" The burdened pretztail called her friend as she put a paw on his shoulder, "I refuse to believe that that witch is our mom…" Her voice trailed off, figuring out what else to say. Jorelo shook his head and looked at her with the moonlight still shining on them.

"It's true Pandora, we're freaks. All the piñatas back home were right… We have to accept it and move on," Jorelo wished he could have been like the other piñatas, just to be normal for one more day. "Besides, who's left to call us names? …Falkor?" He chuckled with a cute smile. That was a positive for the two, who _would_ be left after a mass explosion like that?

"…I guess you have a point, but still, I just don't like Prisca." Pandora shook her head, "she seems all… Evil," because she _was_ evil. Her intentions of their creation were for her own good. And that _good_ was for wiping the island. No, the world clean of the piñatas. Which was confusing seeing as Prisca was a piñata herself. But the thoughts subsided as Jorelo placed a friendly paw on Pandora's shoulder as well and drew her to his side.

"We still have each other, and all the time left in the world," Jorelo let out a small chuckle, nothing could ruin this moment, _nothing_. Jorelo finally found happiness in solitude, solitude with his friends. No more piñatas giving them weird looks, no more getting beaten up over something stupid as glowing patterns, no more crazy psychopaths holding your best friend at gun point. Yes, this was what Jorelo wanted, and he finally got it.

Pandora's lips curved into an shy smile as she began to feel as blissful as Jorelo. Unfortunately for them, more troubles were just around the corner…


	10. Chapter 10

-1**Chapter 10**

Falkor was already in bed at this time, dreaming. All the way back into his childhood. He was at home on the same day he roughed up Jorelo. Falkor's dad, a fudgehog of normal variant, questioned what his son had in the bag as it clinked and clanged full of his son's profits while he was driving them home.

"Eh… I found it in my desk dad," Falkor lied, "I think somebody likes me," the clever fudgehog let out a fake giggle to complement it. Falkor couldn't help but think back to the trouble he had recently caused. The young fudgehog wasn't violent, he was just a slave to temptation. Contemplative, Falkor gazed out the window, wishing he could have taken what he had down back.

"So anything you plan on getting with that?" His father asked him, Falkor couldn't really take his mind off of the nagging subject to give a straight answer.

"…I dunno," he shrugged, not making eye contact. Falkor _could_ have bought Jorelo's forgiveness with that money, but that idea never crossed his mind. The young fudgehog didn't think freaks like Jorelo would need anything like that. Falkor also wondered why that mallowolf wanted him to beat Jorelo up in the first place? Couldn't the mallowolf have done it himself?

The car halted at a four-way intersection, the stoplight gleamed a vivid crimson. Falkor believed that maybe he _did_ need to apologize, but he couldn't find the guts to do it, and forgotten all about it once he reunited with them in the distant future. Getting down on himself, the guilt-ridden fudgehog pushed away the remorseful thoughts and awaited their arrival home. 

Pandora was guilty of dreaming about her past as well once she fell into a slumber. The dream took place around the same time Falkor was being brought home from school. However, She was following Malak around closely, as well as giving him directions to her house.

Jorelo's physical condition was weighting heavily on the pretztail's mind, though she had no idea that he had only passed out. The seemingly endless sidewalks had finally led them to their destination as the relieved pretztail rushed for the front door. Pandora pounded on the door as hard as her little arms would let her, but she knew in the back of her mind that that wouldn't get her parents to open it faster. It opened within a few seconds time as a female badgesicle stood on the other side.

"Pandora!" She exclaimed as she examined her briefly, "you don't have knock so hard, I can hear you just fine, who's your friend?" She eyed Malak suspiciously also finding who he cradled in his arms. Pandora's mother let out a horrid gasp realizing who it was, "what happened here?"

Pandora started choking on her tears again when she began to explain, "M-mommy, J-Jorelo got hurt!" She happened to get the point across the best she could. Her foster mother took Jorelo out of Malak's arms and brought him inside within a heartbeat. Malak turn around and started towards the sidewalk, that is, until Pandora stopped him.

"Where are you going?" She questioned him as she wiped her own tears away.

"…I need to get back home," Malak lied. The truth was that he didn't want to stay and if he did, the guilt would have ate him alive.

"But… I don't know your name, can you at least tell me before you leave?" she begged of him. Malak briefly gazed back at her with eyes hiding all emotion. Pandora seemed like she was about to cry again, he didn't want anymore tears to be shed, at least not now, not when when he couldn't handle it.

"…Malak," he mutter as he turned away from her and walked off into the sunset. The relieved mallowolf felt a little attached to Pandora now. She came to be like a little sister to him seeing as he knew barely anyone else.

"Thank you, Malak!" Pandora cried out to him, hearing this made Malak feel somewhat better about himself. Pandora watched her idol walk into the distance until he was completely out of sight, she had grown attached to Malak as well, since he was the one that saved Jorelo's life.

Speaking of Jorelo, she immediately recalled his situation and rushed inside the house to check up on him. She suspected Jorelo would be in his room at this time, so she had gone there first to search for him. Her intuition was very much accurate, Jorelo was lying limply on the bed with his mother cleaning and dressing his cuts, the enormous cut on his forehead was really breathtaking for the badgesicle. Their mother heard Pandora entering the room and looked her right in the eyes before speaking.

"Pandora, do you know _exactly_ how Jorelo got hurt?" She questioned her slowly.

Pandora swallowed hard as her voice started to shiver a bit, "a-at school, mommy, there w-was a bully," she explained, hoping her mother wouldn't yell at her for telling her the truth, she didn't like the idea of being yelled at, she never did. Her foster mother didn't get irate with her, but she _did_ pissed off with the school.

"Do you know who did this honey?" Her mother asked her another question, Pandora nodded.

"A white fudgehog! His name's Falkor! He was bigger than Jorelo and he pushed him into the ground, _twice_!" Pandora gave her mother a decent description without stuttering as the pretztail just wanted justice to be served to that no good fudgehog. Falkor even knew he had it coming by this time, but he had hoped and prayed it didn't.

Pandora's mother stomped off to the living room telephone to give the school a piece of her mind, Pandora didn't bother to follow. Instead, she decided to check on Jorelo as she sat on his bed and kept a committed watch over him. She even checked to see if he was still breathing now and then. Bickering and yelling of her mother soon flooded the house, she didn't want Jorelo to hear it so she closed the door to silence the room a bit more. The considerate pretztail sat back on the bed and continued to watch over Jorelo.

Falkor was still dreaming about his troubled past. He was at home now, playing games with his siblings, who all happened to be different colors than him. He felt left out that he was pure white, but he didn't let it get to him. His siblings actually happened to be nice about it.

The white fudgehog was usually content when he was at home, away from the strangers at school and the outside in general. His father called for him suddenly, and not in his normal manner either, he sounded a bit frustrated. The obedient fudgehog followed where the voice came from, he could soon see how upset his father looked, and that was just the first to come.

"What's wrong?" Falkor asked his father with innocent eyes, but he soon gotten the idea that he already knew what the problem was.

"I just got a call from school. They said you beat up another student, is this true?" His arms were now crossed as he scowled as his son.

Falkor couldn't hide the guilt on his face as he sputtered out his lies, "but dad! He threw the first punch! I had to defend myself!" His father didn't believe any of it.

"Falkor, there were witnesses there that tell a different story, now tell me the truth," he warned him one last time, hoping his son would tell the truth. Falkor couldn't give eye contact anymore as he looked directly at the ground below his father.

"I-…I-, someone gave me money to do it," Falkor admitted, "I couldn't turn down something like that!" His father shook his head in disappointment, it was the first of many times he would do this. Falkor was a good child, but corrupted by temptations, and it had a domino effect of what was going to come.

"Look," his father started, "tomorrow, I want you to apologize to the poor boy you harassed and give back the money you took from whoever gave it to you, do you understand Falkor?" The young fudgehog still offered no eye contact to his father.

"Okaaay…" Falkor groaned in displeasure of being forced to do something against his will.

"Now, I want you to go to your room and think about what you've done for the rest of the night," he scolded his son as he led the young fudgehog to his room. The meager threat didn't scare him, nor did he cry, but he was certainly angry. More angry with himself than at his dad, because Falkor got himself into this mess in the first place.

His father had locked him inside and walked away without another word spoken. Falkor had gone to the window and sighed. The stressed fudgehog found tranquility watching the cars pass back and forth in the nighttime rain as time seemed to stand still within the dullness of it all. Falkor looked back at the clock on his bedside table, it was a half hour to midnight.

However the time didn't really matter to Falkor seeing as he was a prisoner in his own home. The white fudgehog turned his head back to the window and a certain somebody walking down the street caught his eye instantly. It was that mallowolf, the same one that pushed him to start it all. Falkor's thirst for revenge ravaged and corrupted his ability to reason. He quickly grabbed the bag full of coins off of his dresser, pried opened his window as he climbed his way outside, soon charging after the brown mallowolf in a blind fury.

Malak wasn't prepared for what Falkor had in store for him. Malak himself couldn't believe what he had just done recently. Even though he was too young to be arrested for stalking, the thought itself frightened him. The innocent mallowolf just wanted to watch over Pandora, he had no idea she would cry from the sight of his silhouette in the moon's light.

The depressed mallowolf didn't think he was so scary as Pandora mentioned eariler. He had listened in to their little conversation until their father came into the room, in fear that the fizzlybear would look out the window and spot him. Now the homeless mallowolf was making his way for a place to sleep for tomorrow, however an incredibly rude and familiar fudgehog had interrupted that.

"Stupid Mallowo-o-olf!" Falkor yelled at him, still chasing him down. Malak turned around, expecting some adult that was harassing him, but instead he was greeted by a bag full of chocolate coins across his face. It had left him with a noticeably large black eye.

"Keep your fucking money!" Falkor shouted at the stunned mallowolf. The fudgehog was more than just mad, this was the beast that Malak had created, and Malak knew it.

Malak's heart was racing, he really didn't know what to do in a situation like this. The bag of coins had ricocheted onto the street and was crushed by the tires of an oncoming car. Malak, not knowing what else to do, threw a fist into his attacker's face to defend himself.

Falkor recoiled from the impact as he was dazed by the hit. The fudgehog rubbed his cheek where the fist had landed. Unaware of his own condition, Malak's markings had started to glow just like Jorelo's had hours before.

"A-a-another freak…" Falkor gasped as he backed away from Malak, almost falling backwards on the bump of his back. Malak scanned himself over, he could see it as well. "…And you paid me to hurt more of your kind…" Falkor pointed out, still in shock.

Malak ran away from the conflict, not wanting to deal with Falkor or confront his glowing issue. Falkor was somewhat relieved now that the mallowolf was gone. The fudgehog's father had ran out the front door and scooped Falkor into his arms.

"Falkor! What are you doing outside?" His father questioned him with much concern, Falkor felt more at ease now that he was in his father's arms.

"I went to return the kid his money," Falkor sighed, releasing all the angry tension that had burdened him.

"Why? I told you to wait 'till tomorrow, do you know how late it is?" His father argued back. Falkor didn't care as it went in one ear and out the other. 

Prisca still sat in her seat thinking about the discussion that was held earlier in the night. The golden pretztail wrote them on a piece of paper after recording the date:

_Jorelo and Pandora appear to be non-violent… Far different from my previous two creations before them. However they were prototypes, and more aggressive than their successors fortunately. Though I had attempted raising the prototypes myself, the results ended in a failure as the two were forcefully rebellious as children… As a matter of fact, they still are…_

Prisca sighed before continuing on, but before she could, a distant explosion cause an ear to twitch. Using her telekinesis, Prisca turned her chair around and opened the drapes in front of her. The pretztail peered out and gazed at what was on the otherside. If Prisca was a normal piñata, she would have gasped at the sight, but Prisca was not of the norm at all. 

Outside the headquarters millions upon millions of air fighters, space warships, probably any vehicle made for warfare were positioned, ready to strike the tower down where it stood. Soft explosions and weak gunfire could be heard from where Prisca stood.

"Damned PDF," Prisca growled as she could see her sour militia were getting slaughtered, this was not looking well for the sour side of the war. PDF may have been down, but they were definitely not out as they came back for redemption. The golden pretztail knew what she had to do as she darted out of the room to warn her creations of the on coming chaos. 

Somewhere not so faraway, Malak was laughing hysterically as he had brought back the downed PDF, Piñata Resistance, _and_ sour soldiers. And the great and sinister Malak was the one to lead them all back to SAF for one last fight to the finish.

Prisca's sours that guarded the headquarters were no match for the mallowolf's mighty army. Not only were the dead resurrected, but the aircrafts and tanks reconstructed, better than ever! Prisca would have taken this on if she was granted with more soldiers and artillery, but she had to escape this one knowing that she was out numbered in this fight. Malak continued to laugh, realizing revenge was only a few moments away.

Jorelo, Pandora, and Falkor were all awake and standing by the time Prisca had busted through the door. They all had the idea that she was probably here to tell them something urgent. Falkor though, got the idea she was going to send his ass into her militia, but luckily for him she didn't have any control of him as he was placed in Jorelo's and Pandora's care.

"Prisca-" Jorelo began but the golden pretztail didn't care if she interrupted him or not.

"There is no time to explain," Prisca cut to the chase, "we must leave if we wish to see another day." The three _did_ hear the explosions in the background, but they took it as some kind of daily target practice for the sours.

"Prisca!" Jorelo shouted slightly agitated, "what's going on?" Because of course, people don't breakdown doors for just _any_ reason.

"We are under attack," Prisca simply stated. Jorelo and Falkor exchanged looks. Said fact pushed Pandora into asking a question, "By who? I thought-"

"You should not be concerned with that," Prisca had interjected again, she started using some sort of unnamed power of energy that emanated from her paws to build up a blue, silvery glimmering ball of light between them. Once she repelled her paws away from each other a portal had formed right in front of her. "Now go!" She ordered them to go through the portal while motioning them to do so as well. Jorelo recalled teleporting from Piñata Central to the sour HQ and how it knocked him out for awhile. While he was blanking out with the apprehension still in his head, Pandora and Falkor had already jumped into the portal.

"Jorelo!" Prisca called irritably. Jorelo shook his head to reclaim his senses, it didn't matter if he'd faint on the trip there or not, Jorelo would wake up eventually, right? He sprinted and leaped right in with Prisca trailing right behind him, the portal then vanished into thin air.


	11. Chapter 11

-1**Chapter 11**

And as expected, Jorelo had passed out again. he woke up back in his own bed, reliving the past in his dreams. The sleepy fudgehog could feel the snoozing blue pretztail snuggled up against his back. Jorelo wanted to get up and get something to eat, he was pretty hungry after recovering from his recent accident and his stomach wasn't afraid to show it either. The careful fudgehog pried Pandora slowly off of his back and slipped out of the room. Everything seemed quiet as Jorelo headed to raid the fridge. That is until his mother's voice stopped him.

"Looks like somebody's feeling better!" His foster mother exclaimed with a smile as he hastily turned around and saw her right in front of him. "You have a visitor y'know," she stepped aside so Jorelo could see his guest all the way in the living room, it was Malak.

The half grinning mallowolf was sitting relaxed on the couch, waving to Jorelo once the fudgehog took notice. The uneasy fudgehog returned the wave awkwardly.

Jorelo _did_ see Malak at school, but what in the hell was he doing here? The loner Mallowolf never talked to him at school, so what reason would he be here for? The hesitant fudgehog just stood there, not knowing what action to take to deal with this surprise.

His mother pushed him forward a bit, "well aren't you gonna play with him…. Or are you just gonna leave him sitting there bored out of his mind? He came here to spend time with you and Pandora," Jorelo didn't reply. But he obeyed his mother's orders as he limped over into the living room and cautiously sitting next to Malak, not offering any eye contact until the last second.

"H-hello," Jorelo quietly greeted his guest as he was a bit shy around the mallowolf.

"Hey! Feeling any better?" Malak asked him with artificial concern as the fudgehog thought Malak was a psychic for asking. But then fast thinking helped him realize he still had the bandages constricted around his head.

"…Yeah," Jorelo replied, unaware by the fact that Malak was the one who carried him home. However, the fudgehog noticed that the mallowolf's right eye was swollen and bruised noticeably. Being polite, Jorelo didn't mention it, but his face sure did ask about it.

"…I ran into a pole," Malak lied, "don't worry," Jorelo believed him. Well it wasn't as bad a Jorelo's condition, but you _could_ call it payback for what Malak had done to create this whole catastrophe.

"'Kay…" Jorelo nodded, worrying about the mallowolf's injury no longer as he attempted to conjure up another question, "Um… Why'd ya wanna see me and Pandora for?" Jorelo's query had hit Malak out of nowhere. The mallowolf knew why, he was here more for Pandora's sake than Jorelo's, but he couldn't let Jorelo know that.

"Jorelo…" A young voice called from the hallway, "_Pandora_," The thought ran through both boys' minds. "Are you up?"

"Yes, I'm in the living room, somebody's here to see us," he answered Pandora's call as she made it out of the hallway, still sleepy-eyed. Looking towards Jorelo's general direction. she saw more of Malak than Jorelo, and just looking at Malak made her smile.

"Malak!" She exclaimed as she ran to give the young mallowolf a bear hug. Malak caught her in her arms, almost dropping her. _Hey, don't I get a good morning hug?_ Jorelo's jealousy was roused as he tried to push it away, "You came back!" Pandora cheered.

"_Back…? He was here before?"_ Jorelo couldn't stop his tangled mind from trying to figure this out, "I missed you," Pandora admitted as Malak chucked and released the pretztail from his grasp. Pandora sat on the other side of Malak without a second thought. Unfortunately, the intensity of Jorelo's headache worsened from all of the recent events.

The conflicted fudgehog ran to the kitchen to see if his mom, or himself if he had to, could whip up an ice bag. Too bad all of the horrid thoughts had consumed him by then as he had passed out and fell to the ground.

"Jorelo!" Pandora called for him as he started to hallucinate for a moment. "Jorelo… Wake up!" He picked up her voice again as it began to mature into an older version of itself. The resistant fudgehog fought against the dream and awoke in a flash.

"…What?" He replied in a sleepy shock, finding himself in a grassy field as endless as the ocean. It had been awhile since he had laid outside like this. The grass beneath him felt so comfortable as it supported all the curves of his body. The yawning fudgehog glanced up to find Pandora and a partly cloudy day hanging above him.

"You should get inside, it's going to be snowing soon!" Pandora exclaimed as she hadn't seen snow in ages, plus she didn't want Jorelo to freeze over in it.

"S-snow?" He stuttered as Pandora helped pull the fudgehog to his feet. Jorelo scanned the area over from where he stood. "_Just a wood house with a pretty tall maple tree growing next to it… H ow could it snow in a place like this_?" He started rambling in his head again, luckily it didn't cause any pain this time.

The eager pretztail led him into the house, she even held the door open for him once they got there. Once Jorelo saw the house up close, he made it out to be more of a log cabin. Was this Prisca's vacation lodge or something? Jorelo questioned it as he stepped inside. The interior of the house was more stunning that the outside, everything was so technological looking, making the exterior extremely unfitting of the place.

The observant fudgehog spotted Falkor snacking on some popcorn as he was seated in front of a large control panel outfitted out with a mass of controls and diverse screens.

"…What? It's been awhile since I've eaten," Falkor shrugged at Jorelo and laughed nervously, picking up the bowl full of popcorn and pushed it towards Jorelo's direction, spilling a few pieces in the process as he offered his friend a handful.

"No thanks," Jorelo waved the popcorn away, feeling like he would need something more filling to feed his stomach with. Falkor retracted the bowl and took another handful to shove in his mouth.

"Anything you _do_ want?" Falkor asked between munches.

"I guess an apple'll do for now," Jorelo wasn't picky, but he _was_ hungry. The white fudgehog turned around and tapped some random buttons and threw a few switches on the controls in front of him. And in mere moments a red apple soon materialized in Jorelo's paw with no effort at all.

"Whoa!" Jorelo was enthralled almost to a point of being eccentric about it. The hesitant fudgehog held the apple up to his sight and tilted his head wondering if the newly created object was even safe to eat it.

"Go ahead, it's just an apple," Falkor smirked, expecting Jorelo to toss it in a waste bin, but the unpredictable fudgehog bit into it instead.

"…Mmm, not bad," Jorelo commented after he swallowed as Falkor turned around and started typing on the control panel once again.

"Pandora said she wanted snow, and now that you're inside… Might as well get to it…" Falkor's voice trailed off as he threw a random switch.

"Falkor," Jorelo began, "how long did it take you to learn to use this machine?" Jorelo was intrigued with how a machine like this can make anything appear from nothing.

"Prisca's taught me," he replied, rubbing his head, indicating the recent shock therapy that was giving to him, "…The hard way."

"I can imagine," Jorelo rolled his eyes while taking another bite out of the apple.

"Anyways, Pandora wanted snow," Falkor returned to clattering away on the controls.

What was this new world Jorelo was in? Where a wish could be made true with the throwing of a switch. Where a machine pumped out everything from small objects to creating and changing the weather, was the dark fudgehog dreaming again?

The machine started to hum as Jorelo's ears picked up a toilet flush in the back of the house, a door slamming in the same area soon after.

"Falkor!" Pandora yelled while she ran towards the pair of fudgehogs. Falkor turned around and saw the blue pretztail standing in front of them with a strand of toilet tissue trailing from her right foot, "I wish you would have waited 'till I was ready!" Falkor ignored the statement and snickered at the tissue stuck to her foot.

"Pandora…" Falkor said between giggles as he pointed at her foot, Pandora examined at the area Falkor pointed out.

"Opps… Heh heh…" The embarrassed pretztail murmured as she peeled it off hastily while Falkor twisted in his seat and started typing on the control panel. After he was satisfied with the code, the white fudgehog threw the switch once again. Pandora gazed at Falkor's effort, wondering what he was doing now.

"Still there," Falkor turned back as he began laughing, pointing at the pretztail's foot.

"Falkor!" Pandora growled as she ripped the cloned tissue off and stomped her way towards him, Falkor abruptly stopped his joyous chuckling once Pandora shoved said tissue down his throat. Jorelo winced at the sight, being thankful that he didn't piss her off. "You just never learn Falkor," Pandora mumbled as she took Jorelo by the arm and dragged him outside.

Coughing and retching, Falkor grabbed a nearby waste bin and hacked up the moistened, balled up paper

It had been years since Jorelo and Pandora saw snow. The dark fudgehog didn't mind it but Pandora had enjoyed playing in the snow whenever it came. The sparkling snow fell about all around them and luckily not one speck had to be shoveled.

Pandora's cell phone rang and vibrated from her belt, the pretztail took it out of it's small holder and answered it, finding Falkor on the other line.

"Remember, don't stay out there too long, Prisca wants to discuss some things with you after you're done playing with your boyfriend," Falkor teased her.

"Hey!" The blushing pretztail giggled, hoping Jorelo couldn't hear Falkor's voice through the phone, "he still doesn't think the time is right for that," her words enticed Jorelo to peek over at the conversation.

"Who doesn't know what?" The curious fudgehog asked. Pandora jumped from the unexpected surprise and hung up the phone before Falkor could utter another word.

"Oh nothing!" She said nervously with a smile as Jorelo closed his eyes briefly and shook his head.

"Whatever you say, Pandora," The fudgehog said as he took a step from the stair and into the snow. It felt icy to the touch, but that didn't deter Jorelo on bit as he put his other foot into the snow. "Burrr!" Jorelo crossed his arms and shivered, believing the snow became colder in just a few moments. However a falling pile of snow unexpectedly dropped on his head, shuffling up his thoughts about the cold. "Ahh!" Pandora only giggled at the poor fudgehog's reaction. Freezing more than ever now, Jorelo shook the snow off and glared at her, as he caught her red handed wiping all the snow off of her paws.

"I couldn't help it!" Pandora defended herself while laughing her tail off. Feeling vengeful, Jorelo gathered up some snow underneath him and chucked it at Pandora's muzzle, that got her quiet, "Jorelo!" She shouted at him, but was only to be silenced with another snowball to the muzzle. The snow was now at the least a foot tall now, Pandora had gotten the clever idea to tackle Jorelo into the snow. However they ended up getting buried within the stuff. 

Many hours had past. Each one making Falkor more anxious of his friends' return. Prisca was still busy with her trivial affairs and even if she wasn't, the white fudgehog would be too frightened to say anything to her.

The persistent fudgehog had also called Pandora's cell, and even Jorelo's countless times. Sadly, both of them didn't answer. By the first hour, Falkor had input the commands in the machine to stop the snow, but not to melt it away. Filled with suggestive thoughts, Falkor believed Jorelo and Pandora were probably making out in an igloo they built together, but the idea began to fade away by the time the second hour came along. It was then Falkor started calling their phones over and over, unfortunately there was no answer.

Now he knew something must be seriously wrong. Falkor started to typing feverishly again, this time with an intention to melt the snow. The fearful fudgehog was about to throw the switch when…


	12. Chapter 12

-1**Chapter 12**

Jorelo had woken up from what seemed like an ageless sleep. The dazed fudgehog eventually found he was in a room made entirely of snow. Unbelievably, the snow wasn't cold in the least and the bed he was laying on was made of the snow as with all the other furniture that surrounded him.

However the lamp that was illumining the room was in fact a real lamp. The light gave Jorelo that warm feeling as he gazed at the sight for awhile, reminding him of sitting in front of the fireplace when he was younger.

Jorelo broke the stare and rolled onto his other side, almost colliding into Pandora's back in the process. The startled fudgehog let out a sigh of relief knowing she was still alive. But then it occurred to him: Where _were_ they exactly? Realizing he wasn't dreaming anymore, Jorelo tapped Pandora on the shoulder a few times, she squirmed slightly in place and let out a small groan.

"Pandora," Jorelo whispered softly. Seems the shoe was on the other foot this time, Jorelo was waking _her_ up now and he felt slgithly smug knowing that. Realizing that a simple tap couldn't wake her up, Jorelo rocked her back and forth softly. "Come on, wake up."

"Uunnhh…" Pandora groaned again as she opened her eyes slowly, "what is it?" She took time to focus the image she was seeing in front of her. "Wait… Where… Are we?" The stunned pretztail turned around and faced Jorelo.

"…I don't really know, I sorta got knocked out when I fell into the snow," the fudgehog shrugged, "either we're alive or this is the afterlife," the first option had sound more realistic. Jorelo sat himself up and yawned, "…I wonder if there's anyone here besides us right now." He scanned around the room in one sweep.

"There has to be," Pandora replied, "I mean we don't just wind up alone in a place like this," The pretztail pointed out as a soft female voice soon cut into the conversation.

"I see you're both awake!" The two turned their sights on the far corner where their eyes met with a completely white, female arctic pretztail with white hair past her elbows to match.

"…So you're the one who saved us?" Jorelo assumed, admiring the pretty pretztail in the process as he had never seen a pretztail of this variant before.

The white pretztail nodded, "of course!" she walked over to them as Jorelo and Pandora climbed out of bed. "It's been awhile since I've had visitors," she smiled at the duo sweetly, "so what are your names?"

"I'm Jorelo," Jorelo announced and then tilted his head at Pandora, "and that's-" he got cut off by the pink pretztail, "Pandora!" She exclaimed, "…And yours?" She asked the arctic pretztail.

"Melony, it's nice to meet you both," she took a polite bow before the two.

"So how long have you been here?" Pandora shot another question at her. Her query really made Melony think it over.

" Um… That's a good question!" Melony answered as she smiled nervously as a bead of sweat trailed down her forehead. Both Jorelo and Pandora had exchanged looks of confusion.

"…Do you even know?" Pandora wondered, tilting her head to the side.

"…Sadly, I can only recall being here by myself for who knows how long it's been, and it seems like that would be as far as I can remember…" Melony scratched the back of her head and sighed. Jorelo decided to jump back into the discussion.

"So you don't even remember your family even?" He asked with sympathy written all over his face. Melony only shook her head.

"How awful…" Pandora sighed, feeling Melony's pain, "not being able to remember your family…"

"It's okay, it's feels like I never had one to be honest," Melony admitted, "…Like I grew up without one. It's sorta strange, knowing what I know now and never recalling how I got the knowledge in the first place…"

Pandora's cell phone started to ring, interrupting their depressive discussion. Realizing it could be someone important calling her, she opened up the phone and answered it.

"…Falkor?" Pandora spoke into it, though not a voice replied back. Pulling the phone back so she could gaze at the screen, Pandora found out her phone already died. "D-Dammit!" Pandora shouted at her phone and glared at Jorelo, "…Your phone still work by any chance?" She asked hopefully.

Jorelo took his phone off the holder on his belt and glanced at it for a few moments, it was dead as well. The fudgehog faced Pandora and shook his head with a sigh, "Well isn't that just _great_?" Pandora complained, letting out an irritable growl.

"Um, what the matter?" Melony's curiosity got the better of her, wondering what was so important about the objects they held in their paws as she never imagined such a thing before.

"Our phones died," Jorelo showed Melony the powerless phone. The sight had instantly filled the arctic pretztail with an enticed perplexity.

"What are… _phones_?" Melony questioned, hoping they would explain it in a way she could easily understand.

Pandora spoke up this time, "it's a communicator, it lets us talk to people who're far away," She summed up. "_Wow… She_ really _must live away from society… Or Prisca in this case_," The pink pretztail kept her thoughts to herself.

"Oh, that sounds amazing!" Melony smiled from cheek to cheek, knowing that the capabilities of a _phone_ were possible. "I wouldn't mind having one, except… I wouldn't have anyone to talk to," she groaned slightly, thinking of how neat it would be to use one.

"You can have mine," Jorelo offered, placing the dead cell phone in her paw.

"Jorelo!" Pandora interjected, but the fudgehog quickly cut her off, "Pandora, I can get another," Jorelo countered, remembering the matter materializing technology that Falkor operated.

"Alright then…" Pandora gave in.

"Anyways…" Jorelo started while Melony played around with the phone, "is there any way we can get back er.. Home?"

Melony snapped the phone shut in alarm. "Oh! Um, well there's quite a bit of digging to do to get out of here first, this snowstorm shows no signs of stopping," she informed the two, "I'll show you," the arctic pretztail led them through the hallway and soon into the living room where the entrance was.

Their exit was flooded with snow, "there's still one way out though," Melony reassured them as she faced the ceiling and pointed at the tunneled chimney so her friends could find it as well. The duo saw it was just large enough for them to climb up inside it one by one. Though thin rays of light were piercing through the top, letting the group know that there wasn't that much time left before they were officially trapped inside.

"We'll have to act fast," Jorelo got busy as he began to push the couch to the middle of the room, where their escape hung above. The others followed suit, pushing and piling random objects onto each other.

_ "Boy, am I gonna have quite a mess to clean up when I get back_," Melony thought to herself as she kept stacking The group had finished in a few minutes with the effort they put into their survival.

"I'll test it out," Jorelo offered, not wanting the girls to hurt themselves if they had happened to fall from their makeshift ladder being too faulty. The cautious fudgehog scaled the mess slowly with the other two following behind him when it was safe. The tunnel above was about fifteen feet high from the floor, making it quite a climb for the trio.

Jorelo happened to reach the tunnel with some ease, he placed his paws as far as the would go into the tunnel and then put them on opposite sides and jabbed them into the snow forcefully so he could lift up his legs, soon placing them on opposite sides so he could do the ascending movement all over again.

Pandora was the next one to make it to the tunnel with Melony right behind her. Jorelo pulled himself up to what was now ground level with the snow still piling on. The dark fudgehog aided Pandora up and soon they both worked on getting Melony out from the hole. The three stood up and gazed at the billiard filled wasteland. Pandora was facing in the direction of where the snow was blowing, she cover her eyes from the blast of cold flakes.

"I can't see a damned thing," Jorelo grumbled as he kicked the snow below him, and right then and there the snow had abruptly stopped, "…Whoa."

"That was cool!" Melony was amazed how Jorelo made the snow stop falling, "do it again!"

"But I didn't do anything." Jorelo scratched the back of his head "Maybe…."

"Falkor!" Both Jorelo and Pandora shouted simultaneously. Melony gazed beyond the distance, she could make out a faint golden outline and a few glowing dots in the distance.

"Guys! I see something up ahead!" The artic pretztail alerted them as she pointed out her discovery with much enthusiasm. The duo gazed out to where her finger was directing them, and of course they saw the same thing.

"What are we waiting for?" Pandora shouted while charging towards the faint glowing formation, "come on!" The three had hauled tail to their destination, but as they were appearing to be closing the distance, the light ahead seemed to be getting more dim with every step. Their fast sprinting soon regressed into a slowly paced limp as they grew fatigued from traversing through the deep snow.

Pandora was the first one to pass out. However Jorelo didn't take notice, it was Melony who pointed it out, since she was the anchor of the group. Jorelo barely heard Melony speak up through the crunches of the snow and the bitterness of the cold started to eat at Jorelo's senses as well.

He went back for Pandora and started carrying her like Malak carried him so long ago, but Jorelo himself soon fell to the crippling chill of the snow and fainted as well. Melony took notice that they were all a few feet away from the door of the house they have been chasing.

The snow didn't really affect Melony efforts much seeing as she was an arctic pretztail. Though before running for the door, the keen pretztail took notice of the glowing marks, shimmering softly on the two piñatas. Was she just outside too long and had started hallucinating, or was it something else? She shook off the thought and bolted for the door, pounding on it hoping someone would answer it.


	13. Chapter 13

-1**Chapter 13**

"Hm?" Falkor halted his movements, almost throwing the switch to melt the snow. "_That must be them, they haveta' be freezin' their tails off by now_," Falkor pondered briefly to himself as he got up and rushed to the door. What he saw on the otherside astonished him,

"P-P-Pandora? I-Is that you?" He questioned the arctic pretztail on the other side, if that was Pandora he surely liked the change.

Melony completely ignored the fudgehog's question, "you've gotta help them!" She begged for Falkor help while pointing to Jorelo and Pandora, not even looking at them. Without waiting for an answer, she swiftly turned around and ran towards the nearly frozen duo.

Melony grabbed Jorelo by the arms, who still had a decent grip on Pandora, and wasted no time dragging him to the doorstep. It didn't take Falkor long at all to help Melony pull the two into the house and close the door, cutting off the cold air. Melony searched the house all over for blankets, but Falkor grabbed her before she had gone into the hallway.

"That's no place for you," Falkor scolded her, but he was shocked by how warm Melony was despite being out in the snow for hours, "…Let me handle it- Just grab a seat and relax," Falkor sat back down in front of his faithful machine and Melony had followed him like a lost dog. The careful fudgehog deleted the past commands and focused on warming up Jorelo and Pandora.

Melony had gotten lost in its blinking lights, the moving gears, the whole machine itself captivated her. She had never came close to seeing technology this advanced before.

Falkor now started typing in the code for Jorelo and Pandora to return to normal body temperature. He pulled the switch and hoped for the best. After the machines humming died down, Melony and Falkor turned to face the two cold piñatas. Pandora was the first one to wake up, she soon took notice that she was lying in Jorelo's arms and giggled a bit. Her laughter had woken Jorelo up, and eventually the dazed fudgehog realized that he was still holding on to Pandora from behind.

"Ah!" Jorelo shouted and quickly released her.

"Aww, I didn't mind really," Pandora admitted as they both pulled themselves up, they realized that they weren't alone. Pandora's face had instantly flushed as she saw Falkor and Melony trying to hold in their laughter. Pandora wouldn't hit a fellow female but she would gladly gave Falkor a good beating or two, but she was somewhat beat herself.

"…So, where are the bedrooms here?" Jorelo asked, rubbing his sleepy eyes as Pandora yanked him by the paw and led him to the hallway, it was the first door on the right and right across from the bathroom.

"I'm gonna get rid of the snow before I go to bed guys," Falkor announced, but only Melony responded.

"…Alright" The depressed pretztail sighed as she knew her home was built from pure snow, and if the snow were to melt, so would her home. Unfortunately, before she could speak up, Falkor had already pulled the switch and suddenly Melony's life flashed before her as she unexpectedly fell down and started to howl in pain as her body shook violently.

"Huh? Are you okay?" Falkor shouted to the pretztail who was having a seizure over the floor. All the commotion caused Jorelo and Pandora to rush back into the control room to see what the problem was.

"Melony!" Jorelo yelled as he rushed to her aid. Falkor glanced over at the dark fudgehog and raised an eyebrow.

"That's her name? Falkor wondered as Pandora glared at him, her face filling up with bitter anger. She began to rip him a new one. "She's going nuts and all you can think about are names?"

"Well I didn't know her name!" Falkor defended himself, "she just started doing this just as I started to melt the snow," Jorelo had gotten the idea that the machine must have done something that was harming Melony's life. The dark fudgehog ran to turn it off as Pandora fell to her knees and tried to calm Melony down. Jorelo lifted the switch, the clunk it made caught Falkor's attention.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Falkor scowled as both the machine and Melony had cooled down.

"Your matter creator here almost killed Melony," Jorelo pointed out with a stinging glare, believing that Falkor should have known better. Melony returned to breathing normally again, let out one soft pant after the other as Pandora did her best to console the shaken pretztail. The pink pretztail slowly brought Melony to a sitting position.

"Pan….dor…a… What, happ….ened?" Melony forced herself to speak as the wind was knocked out of her. Pandora hugged Melony gently.

"Just Falkor being an idiot, you'll be fine," Pandora stroked Melony's hair. However the name wasn't familiar to Melony. Too tired to think about it, she sighed and fell into a sleepy darkness.

Jorelo stared out through the window, most of the snow disappeared, but still some puddles, mush, and mounds of the melted stuff were left to evaporate away by itself.

How could Melony's attack have been related to the machine melting the snow? Did Melony herself hold some connection to the snow? Did the matter creator end up accidentally creating the pretztail while it materialized the snow… Randomly created? Jorelo had kept the ideas all to himself. Unfortunately, the thoughts eventually led the fudgehog to the fact of his own artificial creation, and it wasn't that different to Melony's.

"I'm sorry…" Falkor apologized to Pandora, wishing she'd forgive him for his honest mistake, however he had only received another tongue lashing from her.

"Don't apologize to me, apologize to Melony," Pandora growled as she was becoming more of a jerk. Falkor didn't like her attitude, but he guessed Pandora and Melony must have created some kind of bond that Falkor didn't see.

_ "Tch, should have guessed Pandora was gay for her_," Falkor aimed to cheer himself up with mockery, but he was somewhat fond of Melony so he took the comment back knowing it was also pointed at Melony. Now that he thought about it, that's all that he was good at: Hurting people. The illusion drove Falkor into a deep depression. Both Jorelo and Falkor had gone off to grab something to out of the mini-fridge by the hallway only to retreat to their bedrooms soon after.

Falkor would have offered to look after Melony, but Pandora certainly wouldn't have allowed it. Instead, Pandora carried Melony to her and Jorelo's room, she saw the fudgehog was already dead asleep on her bed. It was a queen sized bed made for their size, so only two piñatas could comfortably fit on the bed. Pandora didn't want to squeeze in three piñatas on there, she had decided she would let Melony sleep on her side of the bed and Pandora herself would be sleeping on the recliner in the corner.

Pandora kept a watchful eye over Melony as long as she could before her tiredness had consumed her. Jorelo, Falkor, and Pandora were fast asleep as the minutes past them by. However Melony had woken up a couple of hours later. Aware that she had been moved, the arctic pretztail scanned her surroundings intensely.

Jorelo was laid out next to her and Pandora was sleeping on the recliner, her upper body was slumped over onto an arm of the recliner. The sleeping pretztail was snoring moderately, but not loud enough to really wake anyone up.

Melony snuck silently out of bed and into the hallway. The curious pretztail journeyed deeper into the hallway and walked to the door nearest to hers and gently pushed the door open. The room inside was exactly the same as the one she found herself in, the only difference was that Pandora and Jorelo were replaced with just Falkor. For some reason, Melony felt more comfortable around Falkor. Maybe the reason was that she mistook Falkor as an arctic fudgehog because of his colors.

The stealthy pretztail slipped into his bed without a sound. Knowing there was plenty of room on the bed, she respected his space and slept near the edge. Falkor however, was hogging nearly all of the blanket for himself. Though it didn't really matter to Melony, she was used to the cold being an arctic pretztail and all. Plus just being with Falkor was enough to warm her up inside. She fallen asleep in just moments. 

Jorelo had returned to his previous dream. He was lying on the floor after his recent spill at home, Pandora was already at his side. Malak stayed in his seat, not really wanting to get involved with the situation anymore.

"Jorelo, are you okay?" Pandora helped the dizzy fudgehog sit up. The fuss was interrupted by a few firm knocks on the front door.

"I'll get it!" Malak offered and sprang from the couch. He now had a reasonable distraction from the problem that had face him moments ago. The rapping on the door was still constant as Malak ran to the door, not wanting the stranger to wait any longer. The mallowolf opened the door with a false grin on his face, but the guest on the other side had made it disappear in a blink of an eye.

That guest was Falkor, and both were very uneasy at this moment. Falkor would have thrown a good insult or two at Malak, and Malak would have easily gave Falkor a good bruise on his other cheek to compliment the first one, however there were other people around, and they would have broken up the two's fight before it had even started.

"Uh… Is Jorelo available?" Falkor asked the mallowolf without giving him any eye contact, "I need to talk to him," Malak understood and let Falkor in without saying a word. Falkor would have pushed Malak out the door and locked him out, but now was not the time. He went in anyways and spotted Jorelo sitting up in Pandora's arms, Jorelo was slightly unaware of Falkor's presence. Pandora however, was fully aware of Falkor.

"Falkor! What ar-" She shouted at him, but Falkor cut her off.

"I came by to say I'm sorry, that's it," he announced while approaching Jorelo. He stooped down to his level, "I'm sorry, okay, I..I…," he would have told them why, but Malak was in the room and he didn't think it wasn't a good idea to spill the beans just yet.

Malak began feeling as tense as Falkor was. Certainly Malak would be at loss of words if Falkor were to say the truth to Jorelo, but Jorelo was still trying to get a clear picture of what was stooping down in front of him. Jorelo's markings began to glow again, it sent a deep chill down Falkor's spine. Eventually driving the uneasy fudgehog to leave without saying a word.

Malak had to keep his emotions locked up even as Falkor walked out the door. Once he was gone, Malak had let out a sigh of relief as he closed the door, grateful that Falkor didn't go on about his reasons for inflicting pain onto Jorelo.

"That was nice of Falkor to say that," Pandora smiled slightly, "I'd never think he'd do that…" She couldn't keep Jorelo sitting up like this for long. "…Malak, can you help me get Jorelo back in bed, he shoulda' been resting," the pretztail asked him, looking over her shoulder at Malak.

The mallowolf easily noticed that Pandora was struggling to keep the fudgehog from falling back onto the floor. Malak had walked to Pandora's aid and picked up Jorelo like he did the first time and brought him into bed, and of course with Pandora following him all the way there.


	14. Chapter 14

-1**Chapter 14**

Jorelo calmly woke up back in his bed in Prisca's home. The waking fudghog let out his usual yawn and saw that Pandora was sleeping soundly on the recliner. It puzzled him why she was resting there and not in bed, there was plenty of room. Jorelo shook the thought away and wandered out into the control room, soon gazing out the same window. All the snow had vanished, at least that problem was taken care of.

_ "It's probably gonna be mushy out there_," Jorelo cringed. He hated the moistened grass and dirt unless it was raining, then it was expected.

Without warning, a voice pierced the silence, "Aaaah! Pretztail chick in my bed!" Jorelo knew the voice belonged to Falkor, but what was he getting at when he was saying '_pretztail chick_'? The fudgehog turned around and hastily made his way to Falkor's room, Pandora was already out of her seat and met Jorelo halfway.

"Jorelo," Pandora surprised him, "do you think…?" Her voice trailed off as Jorelo shrugged it off and continued into Falkor's room. They both saw Melony stretching out as she woke up and Falkor already out of bed, stunned by his unexpected bed mate.

Pandora scowled at Falkor, "Did you bring her in here?" The irate pretztail began to rip Falkor a new one, "I swear if you did something th-" Falkor cut her off, "I didn't do anything! She was just there when I woke up, it's the truth I swear!" Falkor made himself clear he was telling the truth. Melony yawned and joined in the conversation.

"…What's going on?" Melony asked. Falkor replied with another question, "you tell me! Why were you in my bed?" Melony smiled a bit as a drop of sweat trailed down her forehead.

"Um… About that now…" She giggled nervously, which resulted Pandora's face falling into the palm of her paw.

"You _gotta_ be kidding me…" Pandora mumbled. Jorelo picked her frustration up and decided to razz her a bit.

The dark fudgehog leaned over and whispered in her ear, "is that _jealousy_ I'm sensing?" Jorelo snickered to himself, Pandora faced him and the scowl that left her face soon came back.

"No, but I'm sensing stupidity," Pandora said back to him softly, "…Twelve o' clock." Jorelo knew he could beat that remark so he let the fight die.

"Uh… The temperature was much more warmer in this room!" Melony tried her best to make her excuse believable. Unfortunately, Falkor thought it was a weird reason and decided to keep an eye on her. Jorelo, however, was the only one that had let it slide.

"Okay…" Falkor still felt awkward. Random footfalls could be heard coming up on wooden stairs from below, everyone peeked out of the room and at the end hallway door. The noise was soon broken by the opening of the last door down the hall. A shimmer shape of a golden pretztail clearly depicted that it was Prisca.

Falkor asked her a question, "What do you do down there anyways?"

"That matter does not concern you," Prisca replied harshly, yet calmly as she walked past them all without a glance. Walking in dead silence, Prisca was out the front door to who knows where. Melony scratched her head and turned towards Falkor.

"Who was that?" Melony questioned, never seeing a pretztail glimmer like that before.

"Oh, that's just Prisca, no big deal," Falkor repiled with a shrug of the shoulders, "as long as you're not on her bad side,"

"I hope I don't get on her bad side," Melony replied biting her lip in a nervous fashion.

"Don't worry, I haven't seen her ticked off yet," Falkor chuckled a bit as Pandora sighed annoyingly and joined in the conversation.

"Are you nuts Falkor?" the blue pretztail barked at him, "the war she started is a perfect example of her anger,"

"…I guess you have a point," the fudgehog agreed, "but I really wonder what she was doing down there," Falkor brought the matter up again as the door was carelessly still open. Prisca didn't bother to close and lock it, or did she leave it open for a reason? Falkor moved carefully towards it as if a trap would spring if he got too close. Pandora shook her head in disapproval.

"I don't think going down there is a good idea," Pandora lectured, "we'd be invading her privacy," Falkor stopped at the first step as Melony started to follow the fudgehog without question.

"So?" Falkor countered, "what do I have to lose?" He had a point, everything that he lived for to was now gone. This was like the afterlife to him as it didn't really matter if Prisca killed him or not. Besides, he had gotten the idea she would probably kill him eventually so why let it get him down? The persistent fudgehog continued downstairs anyways and nothing Pandora could say would stop him.

"Falkor!" the blue pretztail shouted as Melony began following him down again, Falkor flipped on the light switch and continued on more. Jorelo patted Pandora on the shoulder briefly.

"I don't know about you, but I want in on this too," Jorelo laughed a bit as he left Pandora's side to follow the pair downstairs.

"But, Jorelo…" Pandora begged, but the dark fudgehog ignored her. Her momentary sadness was soon interrupted by a gasp from the basement.

"Oh my god!" Falkor cried out, "how could someone do such a thing!" Pandora's attention was seized by his dire tone. The suspense ended up forcing the pretztail downstairs.

"What is it?" Pandora shouted down, almost tripping over her own feet. Once the clumsy pretztail was at the bottom step, she saw the dilemma for herself.

The basement was filled with an assortment of different technological items, much like the inside of a spacecraft, but that wasn't what had surprised Pandora. It was the captive female Pretztail trapped in a small room who's only light source came through the bullet proof glass window.

Pandora examined the Pretztail thoroughly. She took notice of the scrawny pretztail's colors, as her patterns were colored white and light blue, however her waist long hair was same shade of dark blue as Pandora's mache. Though what was more clear to see was the injuries and scars covering the poor being from head to toe.

The pretztail Pandora saw made her stomach churn. The disturbed pretztail glanced away from the feeble being and at the label on the door to the her cell. The description embedded read: _Priscilla_. Pandora had gotten the idea that that must of been her name.

Priscilla was staring at them blankly, yet astonished. The solitary pretztail only saw one piñata in her lifetime, and that was obviously Prisca.

With curiosity invading his thoughts, Falkor knocked lightly on the glass, which caused Priscilla to instantly jump back from the window and hide under her sheets. Seeing that, Pandora grabbed Falkor's paw that was tapping on the glass and slapped him across the face with her free paw. The rash action made Melony feel a bit uncomfortable around Pandora.

"Don't you have any respect?" Pandora scolded Falkor as she let go of his paw. The slap alone really taught Falkor a lesson.

Jorelo decided to speak up this time, "what do you suppose Prisca wants with her?" He mentioned while pointing at Priscilla. The light blue pretztail poked her head out of the sheets, her visitors still stood in the same place, but the group was giving their attention to Jorelo instead of her.

Melony had no idea what was going on, she would have loved to have spoke up, but she was still new to this change of pace to really feel comfortable to. Thought that didn't mean Melony didn't sympathize Priscilla.

Falkor then threw in his two cents, "I don't know, but if I had to guess, maybe Prisca uses her as a punching bag when she's mad," he pondered, knowing this could be another prime example of Prisca's anger.

"Jorelo…" Pandora called softly, "If we're caught down here, we might just end up like Priscilla here," Pandora pointed at the captive pretztail. Jorelo looked at Pandora, puzzled about the word _Priscilla_.

"Priscilla?" Jorelo questioned the word while tilting his head, "…That her name?" He asked as Pandora shrugged.

"I'm guessing so, it's what I got off the door," she answered while leading his attention towards the door. Falkor had gone over to the door and caught the corner of Pandora's eye, "Falkor, what are you doing?"

"I'm freeing her," he replied, "it's cruel to keep someone locked up, especially with conditions like hers," he ranted, remembering sour prison back at headquarters, his allies and PDF soldiers were locked up, and even though they were cussing at him, it was still wrong to lock up the righteous and innocent, at least in his opinion it was.

"Falkor!" Pandora yelled at him, "as much as I'd want to do that, think about the consequences!" Falkor took his paw away and pouted.

"Fine, but if she dies the next day, her death is your fault," Falkor really wanted to kick the crap out of Pandora. She was too inflexible when it came to rules and orders. The dark blue pretztail ignored Falkor comment as an unknown voice had called her name, it had sound soft and feminine tone to it.

"You guys hear that?" Pandora called out to anyone who was listening. Melony shook her head.

"Hear what?" Melony wondered as Pandora flicked her ears to adjust them.

"I swore I heard someone say my name," Pandora crossed her arms as her eyes surveyed the place.

The voice called out to her again and she glanced towards where she thought it came from. As she did, her eyes met with Priscilla's perfectly. Both of the feeble pretztail's paws were pressed against the glass as her eyes continued to stare straight into Pandora's.

Pandora could see Priscilla's whole life in her eyes as the two were locked in eye contact. Priscilla's cries could only be heard by Pandora, however Priscilla's lips did not move at all.

Pandora found herself moving closer to the glass, as if she were compelled to and put her paws over window so they covered Priscilla's completely. As the distance was closed fully closed, Pandora could see the tears trailing down Priscilla's face.

Just when things were strange enough, both of their markings started to emit a vivid gold as spheres of pure energy formed between their paws. It grew so bright that Jorelo, Falkor, and Melony had to shield their eyes to avoid being blinded by it. However the trance Pandora and Priscilla were in was too strong for them to be fazed.

Jorelo paced himself slowly backwards from the blinding lights, unfortunately he tripped over a random object and fell over on his face. Though his efforts were in vain as the pair's light went out soon after. The dark fudgehog turned himself over to see what happened, the walls that kept Priscilla sealed in had now vanished.

_ "What the_…" Jorelo thought to himself as he finally got to witness these certain _powers_ himself. Ignoring his minor bloody nose, he got up and walked back to Pandora. But before he could say anything, a slow clap broke the silence from the stairs.

"Congratulations," a familiar, hollow voice greeted them. Jorelo spun around to see Prisca on the bottom step of the stairs, "I see you are developing quite well," Prisca praised them. The dark fudgehog wiped his nose off on his arm, leaving a dull red trail of blood. The others already had their eyes on Prisca, well, everybody minus Priscilla, who was already cowering under her sheets.

Falkor questioned her, "so you were watching us the whole time?" Prisca nodded.

"I can see anything happing any time I wish," she answered, "do not think you can hide anything from me," Falkor chuckled nervously. Jorelo snorted some of the blood back and wiped his nose again with the same arm, Pandora took notice of the fudgehog's injury. 

"Jorelo…" She said softly, "you're bleeding," the fudgehog didn't really care about his nose right now, he was too worried about what their punishment would be for trespassing,

"So are we in trouble?" Jorelo asked Prisca, completely ignoring Pandora's comment.

"The contrary," she smiled sinisterly as Jorelo was astonished by her decision, "since Pandora has found her inner prowess, she can decide what happens to Priscilla."

Pandora glanced back over at the frightened pretztail, she was still shaking uncontrollably. The Blue pretztail left Jorelo's side and approached Priscilla casually, crouching down to her level.

"Priscilla," Pandora called to her quietly. The frightened pretztail peeked a bit under the sheets and saw Pandora only inches away. Her visitor offered a warm smile and a bright face, the friendly gesture caused Priscilla to loosen up a bit.

Taking trust in Pandora's tone of voice, Priscilla slid the sheets off slowly and embraced the pretztail in a long hug. Pandora rubbed Priscilla's back, murmuring to her softly that it would be okay. Falkor and Melony started up stairs now that the problem was taken care of. However, Jorelo put himself in front of Prisca.

"Why did you have Priscilla locked up?" The fudgehog scowled at the golden pretztail.

"I have my reasons," Prisca replied as she retreated upstairs, leaving Jorelo with the two other pretztails and without a true answer. The dark fudgehog headed back over to Pandora to check up on the situation.

"Think we should lie her down in bed… She looks like she really needs some rest," Jorelo suggested. Pandora nodded and stood up, bringing Priscilla to her feet as she did.

"Yeah, you don't mind if she uses ours? I can sleep on that recliner again, unless you don't want to sleep on the floo-" Pandora started, but Jorelo decided to cut her off.

"Falkor can just whip up a couch or something, don't worry about it," Jorelo assured the pretztail, making her giggle.

"I forgot all about that evil contraption," she recalled as Priscilla started to whine for Pandora's attention. Pandora ruffled up the top of Priscilla's hair and let out a small chuckle. "We better get her upstairs," she took Priscilla by the paw and led her upstairs as Jorelo trailed right behind them, shutting the lights off before leaving.

Pandora tucked Priscilla in bed before joining everyone out in the control room. Jorelo took the time inbetween to clean his nose and arm up.

"Okay, I want answers Prisca!" Pandora demanded, "there's multiple scars on Priscilla! I want to know why!"

Prisca shook her head, "disobedient subjects get punished accordingly," Pandora's rage grew as Falkor took a step back before Pandora exploded onto Prisca.

"Disobedient? What the hell do you expect?" Pandora yelled, "you _made_ her that way!" Prisca didn't budge and her facial expression still remained the same.

Jorelo put a paw over Pandora's shoulder, "Pandora calm down, I'm sure we can solve this reasonably," he offered, but Pandora ripped his paw away.

"How can I calm down? I'm fighting for Priscilla!" Jorelo cut her off.

"Pandora, you've already won, Priscilla's under your care remember?" Pandora sighed, knowing Jorelo was right, why should she argue further? Priscilla was already free from Prisca's wrath. Why did Pandora keep pushing Prisca? Justice for Priscilla? Or hatred of Prisca? Maybe a mixture of both.

Pandora walked back to her room to accompany Priscilla. Jorelo could swear he saw tears trail down the pretztail's face when she left.

_ "Pandora_…" Jorelo couldn't help but feel sorry for her. Falkor was sorry as well, the pretztail was fighting for what Falkor was moments ago. However, Prisca blew it off and went back to typing information on her computer.

Melony had no idea what to think, she hadn't seen a fight like this in, well, all her life. Knowing what was best, she kept out of matters that didn't concern her.

Jorelo had gone to his room to check up on Pandora was okay. The fudgehog put his ear softly against the door, he could hear a gentle snore and a stuffy nose. Hoping Pandora wasn't crying, he opened the door slowly. The creaking of the hinges nearly made Pandora nearly jump out of her mache, she had took a quick glance at Jorelo and instantly dried her tears. Jorelo entered the room to find Pandora leaning against the bed away from the door.

"Pandora…" Jorelo called out, but his voice trailed off.

"… I can't stand her," Pandora blurted out, her throat felt tight trying to force out the words, "how can she get away with this, if only I was stronger…" She tried to hold back the tears, but they broke free of her hold.

Jorelo sat next to Pandora and put an arm around her shoulders for support, "that time will come, I know it will," Jorelo assured her, giving her eye contact. Pandora however, was looking out the window across from her. "Trust me, if you and Priscilla can make walls disappear, I'm sure in no time you can do the same with Prisca," Pandora gave Jorelo an unexpected hug as she broke down, crying into his chest. The noise riled Priscilla's sleep, causing her to twitch slightly in bed. Not taking notice to Priscilla's discomfort, Jorelo embraced Pandora with both arms.

"Jorelo!" Pandora cried, "if I knew how, I would!" Jorelo's mache had sodden from Pandora's tears. Jorelo stroked her back to calm her down.

"It'll come with time," Jorelo said, "just worry about Priscilla right now, she needs you the most," Pandora didn't say anything, but inside she was agreeing with him. She would protect Priscilla with her life, she wouldn't think twice of letting some overpowered, tyrannical pretztail get her paws back on Priscilla. 

Back in the control room, Falkor was sipping on a soda while Melony was watching Prisca work at a distance near Falkor, but not close enough so that it'd perk Falkor's awareness. Prisca was keying in codes tirelessly and Falkor was obviously bored. With Jorelo comforting Pandora, Priscilla sleeping, and Prisca hard at work, it only left Melony up for a talk.

"So…" Falkor got her attention, "How long have you been living around here?" He couldn't think of anything else to spark a conversation, though it got Melony thinking.

"I'm pretty sure I've been here all my life…" Melony reply, not feeling so sure of her answer.

"So have you even seen Prisca before," Falkor asked as Prisca overheard the conversation and turned away from her work. She glared right into Melony's eyes, which sent a chill up and down Melony's spine.

"I highly doubt that she has," Prisca concluded and had returned to her business without another word. 

"…She's right," Melony agreed with her, "I've never journeyed far from my home anyways… Are you from the piñarctic too?" Melony couldn't help but ask since Falkor's colors made her question it.

"Not really," Falkor chuckled, "I was born and raised in the warmer places of Piñata Island," his comment made Melony tilt her head in perplexity.

"I could have sworn you were from the piñarctic by your colors…I-, I'm sorry for guessing because of your appearance, I'll shut my mouth now," Melony apologized while blushing slightly.

"It's okay, it happens," Falkor lied, no one really asked him of that because of his colorful family of fudgehogs, he was labeled albino here and there, but he never had the red eyes to officially be called that.

Prisca growled softly from the annoyance. Falkor was sure the conversation was getting on the golden pretztail's nerves, "how about we take this conversation outside?" Falkor suggested as he headed for the door.

"Sure, I could use the fresh air and sno-" Her voice trailed off as Falkor opened the door, Melony saw no snow under the outdoor lamp's light, "the snow! Where is it?" She frantically questioned him.

"It melted Melony, don't worr-" she cut Falkor off abruptly.

"My house was made entirely of snow! All my stuff inside is probably ruined or washed away by now!" She began to panic.

Falkor cursed to himself, "_there goes my chances_…" The Fudgehog could have replaced all her belongings, but who knows what she had in that snow house of hers.

Prisca cleared her throat loudly, Falkor got the message and led a hyperventilating Melony outside. The warm wind blew Melony's tears off her face. They both sat underneath the maple tree as Falkor tried to comfort Melony the best he could.

"_Great, two crying girls, I hope Jorelo's doing okay with Pandora_…" Falkor thought. The fudgehog broke the ice again with a question.

"So… What did you have in your house, you know… Incase I'd happen to run into them," he asked, however Melony stayed negative, "what's the point? Everything's probably ruined!"

Falkor faced her completely, "can you at least tell me? I'll do my best to repair them for you," he offered, but replicate was the better word for what he was going to do. Melony sighed, knowing Falkor wasn't going to quit until she gave him what he wanted.

"Well… Most of the furniture was snow," she said as Falkor cursed to himself again on the inside, "but there were other things that weren't made of snow, like the books, food…." Melony went into listing them and then took each item into greater detail. Falkor took a mental note of the more important items. If he had forgotten something, she would probably tell him and he could make an excuse to 'go back and get it.'

However, Melony's beauty had distracted Falkor from keeping track of the pretztail's ongoing list. Fortunately, Melony didn't mind him looking at her, because she would get lost in his eyes sometimes. She'd go on rambling about a certain item until she reminded herself what she was really suppose to be doing. It had gone on until Melony's beauty hypnotized Falkor into planting a kiss on her lips.

Melony's eyes widened a bit as she blushed, but she eventually went with the flow. Falkor pulled back after he realized what he was actually doing. Both of their cheeks were deeply flushed as they were both lost for words. Soon enough Falkor knew what to say.

"I'll get your stuff back, and in perfect condition," he paused for just a moment, "count on it," Falkor, cheeks still glowing red, stood up and headed off into the distance, not recognizing that he was even fooling himself. He was so full of it that he didn't even hear Melony thanking him in the distance.

It took him awhile before he slapped himself in the face and realized the trance he put himself in, "What the hell am I doing?" Falkor shouted to himself as he turned tail and ran back to the house. Melony was already inside, probably sleeping, because she wasn't sitting in the same spot anymore.

The fudgehog opened the door to the house slightly and peeked in, only Prisca occupied the control room. Falkor stepped in carfully, making sure he didn't disturb Prisca this time. He immediately sat on the seat in front of the 'matter creator' and began materializing most of what Melony kept going on about. Prisca glared over her shoulder to see what Falkor was up to, it didn't look threatening so she let it slip.

Object after object was materialized until Falkor had ran out of what he forced himself to remember, though he was sure Melony would probably tell him about the things he missed in the morning. Having nothing else to do, Falkor decided to call it a night and had gone off to bed.

However, once Falkor got to his room, he found out that Melony was sleeping in his bed once again, but without a blanket. It was all wrinkled up on the other side where Falkor had slept.

The generous fudgehog figured he could do without the blanket for one night as he slowly covered Melony up with the sheets. The pretztail flinched slightly as she was tucked in. Falkor slipped into the other side of the bed and turned off the small lamp that was dimmed to help Melony to sleep.

Just before drifting off to sleep, Falkor noticed it was pretty quiet in Jorelo's room. He assumed Jorelo must have been successful in calming Pandora down. Falkor finally took rest in knowing there was peace in the house, but he didn't dare think of how long it was going to last as he closed his eyes and drifted off.


	15. Chapter 15

-1**Chapter 15**

Falkor began dreaming of the gang's first day of what seemed to be peace. It started all the way back when they first step onto Prisca's territory. It was then that Jorelo fell instantly to the ground. Pandora rush to his side, he was unconscious again.

"Jorelo!" Pandora shouted at him, "… Oh not again," Falkor was too much in awe from the scenery around him, he took it in just like Jorelo had, or eventually will in this case. Prisca had already beat them to the door step.

"Can you move any slower?" Prisca barked at them, Pandora wondered why Prisca, their mother, wouldn't help her own _son_, her _creation_, "just leave him there, nothing here will harm him," Prisca ordered.

Pandora took Prisca's word for it, "_nothing looks bad around this area anyways_," she thought to herself, however, she would still keep an eye on him from time to time.

Falkor and Pandora followed the golden pretztail inside, both became more awestruck from the sights inside of the house. Falkor began to question Prisca about what did what in the control room while Pandora checked out the other rooms.

Falkor's questioning got on Prisca's nerves, she'd probably kill somebody like Falkor if she was forced to live with such a being.

"Alright, if you promise to shut your mouth after, I will give you the information needed to operate the matter creator," Prisca pointed to the _evil contraption_ Pandora would learn to hate later. Falkor accepted without question and sat at the controls. "Okay now try to operate it," Prisca said without giving the poor fudgehog any real instructions.

Falkor gawked at the control panel, he didn't know what button to press or what switch to flick. He saw a big lever on the side and decided to pull it. However, Prisca had gave him a nice dose of electricity through his body with one of her paws before he could do even touch it.

Falkor screamed in brutal pain, his mache was now standing on end, making him look more fluffier, "what was that for?" Falkor growled.

"Now try working it," Prisca told him. Falkor looked back to the control panel, it didn't look as confusing as it did a few seconds ago. This time Falkor actually knew what button and switch did this time.

He typed randomly and threw the bigger switch, and a bowl full of popcorn appeared in his arms, Prisca nodded at his fast improvement.

Pandora toured through most of the rooms, only two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a closet. She was nearing the door to the room that would be later known as the basement. The curious pretztail tried opening it. Unfortunately it gave her an electrical shock when she touched the knob. The pain caused her to howl madly and fall backwards on her tail.

Prisca didn't even bother to come see what was wrong as she was too busy monitoring Falkor, incase he got any ideas of rebellion, but he looked pretty content with his popcorn. Prisca just wished he wouldn't eat it as boisterously as he did.

After his bowl was half empty, Falkor typed on the control panel to request a soda, which he received promptly. He popped open the tab and started chugging most of the soda down.

By this time Pandora had worked herself back up to her feet. Her hair was standing as well as her mache. She decided it would be best to go brush it back down in the bathroom.

Prisca kept a close eye on Falkor, she didn't see why Jorelo and Pandora had liked him. Pandora couldn't stand him sometimes, but he was a good friend when times were dark for them.

Falkor kept refilling the bowl when it was empty and replacing the soda when it was gone.

It took her a little while, but once Pandora stepped out of the bathroom, she realized she looked better than she felt. The blue pretztail walked up over to Falkor and asked him where he got the food, she was rather hungry herself.

He replied about using the matter creator, to get whatever he wanted. Pandora had jokingly bet him that it couldn't make snow, however Falkor took her up on it as he ate scoop after scoop of popcorn. In excitement, Pandora rushed to get Jorelo from outside and alert him of the snow. 

Falkor woke up with Melony in front of him. she was standing next to his side of the bed, Falkor shook his head to make sure he wasn't seeing things.

"Talk in your sleep often?" Melony giggled. Falkor rubbed his eyes open to get a more clear picture.

"No one's ever told me that before, so I guess so," he decided not to argue, especially not with Melony. Melony helped him out of bed, as he headed for the bathroom soon after. Melony had gone off to check Jorelo's room. She could hear Prisca still hard at work with the her keying in characters onto her computer.

Melony pushed that sound out of her head and opened the door, the smell of tart lemon juice filled her nostrils. Eventually she found it was Priscilla that had wet the bed, however she found it strange and unusual that Pandora and Jorelo were sleeping on the floor and all through the night with that scent in the air, though she wasn't clever enough to get any ideas of what they could have been doing like Falkor would have.

She closed the door and headed into the control room, her eyes had broadened at the sight of her belongings near the front door. "_Falkor did it!_" She didn't know how but he did it. She looked through item after item as Falkor came out and seen that she had already found the surprise, she looked over at him and rushed to give him the biggest hug he had ever gotten.

"Falkor!" Melony shouted with delight, "How'd you do it? I can't believe I had ever doubted you!" Falkor wrapped his arms around her and chucked a bit at her amusement.

"Anything for you," he said as he kissed her on the cheek afterwards. Melony had blushed and giggled it off. Melony hadn't been happier in her life, it seemed like the future was paved in gold for her and Falkor, and nothing could get in their way. 

Jorelo ended up awaking to the lemon citrus scent. He looked over himself, he was dry. He looked to Pandora, she dry as well, it had been ages since they've had that kind of accident. He tapped on Pandora's shoulder to wake her up.

"I think Priscilla might have…" Jorelo's voice had trailed off, hoping Pandora could put the other half together. She had spread out her arms and yawned, taking in the scent of the urine and then realized what Jorelo was getting at.

"Oy… I'll change the sheets," Pandora said irritably, she didn't get enough sleep because the drive of getting revenge on Prisca haunted her all night long. She was about to pull the sheets off of her when she realized Prisca had no washing machine of any kind in this place.

"I'll get to it after I do just one thing, 'kay?" She said, holding back another yawn. Pandora had gone out the door, bringing the lemon scent with her. She entered the control room and called out for Falkor's attention. In fear of being caught getting close with Melony, Falkor let go of the smitten pretztail and turned towards Pandora.

"What's up?" Falkor didn't seem in the mood for messing with her today, even if he did, Pandora would have been twice as vicious with her comebacks whether it be verbally or physically.

"I need a washing machine," she said bluntly, Falkor picked up the smell and questioned her, "what happened?" He asked her.

"Priscilla forgot to go to the bathroom before she went to bed," Pandora answered, Falkor nodded that he got her point.

"I see, I'll get right to that then, and instead, I'll just get rid of the old sheets and put in new ones," Falkor suggested. Pandora hummed in agreement.

Melony wondered why Pandora was in such a terrible mood, Melony couldn't draw conclusions as easily as other piñatas could, and plus Melony was happy here.

Falkor slid into his seat and began typing away again. Melony was amazed at how Falkor could do all this.

Falkor pulled the switch down and the sheets and bedding were changed just like that. Jorelo almost jumped out of his mache when that happened since he was still in the room, Priscilla was still well asleep fortunately.

Pandora was now in the bathroom, readying herself for the rest of the day, and she would make sure Prisca wasn't apart of it.

Jorelo entered the bathroom to take care of himself once Pandora was satisfied with her appearance. Feeling just a tad more refreshed, Pandora had gone outside to enjoy the nice spring breeze. She needed to be with her thoughts and by herself if she was going to face the rest of the day.

The gloomy pretztail climbed up the nearby tree and sat on one of the lower, much stronger branches. The thought of vengeance lingered in her mind. If getting rid of Prisca was as easy as putting Falkor in pain, Pandora would do it without a second thought. Recalling Jorelo's comment about practice, maybe she could use this time to hone her skills.

Seizing this as the perfect opportunity to train, Pandora plucked a leaf from the branch above her. Cupping it in an open paw, she glared at it with anger as the leaf transformed colors from a vivid red to grim black until the gentle breeze blew it away like dust.

Pandora became very amused at this, perhaps practice her skills was just what she needed to get her mind off of her troubles. The thrilled pretztail ripped another leaf off the branch. This time she gazed at it with a kindhearted emotion. Seconds later the leaf had lightened to an angelic white and began to float up to the sky above, Pandora fixed her eyes on it until it was out of sight.

She could probably do that with every leaf of the tree, but that would get boring after awhile if it was the same thing over and over again. Pandora tried something else this time, removing another leaf from the tree.

She pictured a sharp blade in her mind, the transformation took awhile longer than the last, but the leaf soon fell into shape and color of a short sword. She gawked with wonder at it for a moment before stabbing it into the trunk of the tree and departing from the object as she ejected herself from the tree.

Pandora knew she had the potential to rid this place of Prisca, but she needed to exercise her abilities more. Transformation was a long process for her to work with. With time she could out do that _evil contraption_ any day.


	16. Chapter 16

-1**Chapter 16**

Despite sleeping soundly, Priscilla had a horrible dream about her past. It had been years since she had any kind of dream. If anything, she wished it would have been no dream at all.

It started out with Priscilla laying on a mattress in her cell, all covered up with her tattered blanket. She was shivering uncontrollably as Prisca had purposely made her cell a moderately unbearable temperature as a punishment. The freezing pretztail couldn't sleep like this, the cold air kept her awake all through the night. Suddenly a voice over a intercom like device on the ceiling barked at her.

"Wake up Priscilla," the voice clearly belonged to Prisca. The freezing pretztail was too cold to do anything and uncovering the sheets would be just worse, "not following orders will result in vile consequences, do you understand? Because I believe I had gone over this with you before countless times," Prisca threaten her.

Priscilla still refused to listen, she kept herself positive hoping that just maybe Prisca would be merciful today, but there was never a day that she was.

The cold pretztail kept shivering as Prisca when on, "Just remember…. Your disobedience makes this your own fault," and suddenly Priscilla's lungs began to tighten up.

Prisca had dished out punishment by removing all the air in Priscilla's cell. The suffocating pretztail hoped that death would come quick for her, but alas it was just the opposite. Priscilla tried to resist moving, but the desire to inhale made her throw off the sheets and run to the glass window. She attempted to bust it open as her lungs were crying for air, however her efforts of getting out of bed rewarded her with the return of the air supply.

"Good, see what happens when you follow my directions?" Prisca said cruelly as the tears trickled down from Priscilla's eyes. There probably wasn't a day where the miserable pretztail didn't shed any tears. Priscilla awaited further orders while drowning in her sorrow. 

Falkor and Melony ended up being dragged outside, Pandora wanted to show them what she was able to do without Priscilla's help. The blue pretztail took a blade of grass and focused into it, slowly transforming it into a tomato. It took about three minutes for the change to be complete. The patient pair of piñatas were astounded from Pandora's improving talent.

Pandora kindly asked Falkor for a request, "Falkor, could you get some target boards out here?" Her tone was sounding much more nicer than earlier this morning. Falkor was happy to oblige, he ran into the house and in a few moments three wooden targets supported by stable rods appeared about twenty meters ahead of Pandora. The eager pretztail waited for Falkor to return before taking any further actions.

"So what did you need these for?" Falkor asked Pandora as she chuckled a bit before replying, "I wanna see something," she said to both of them.

The blue pretztail turned to face one of the targets and put both paws out in front of her, thinking of a deadly laser in her head. And sure enough a small stream of condensed light shot forward from her paws and penetrated into the target. Pandora wasn't happy with it's size, she pictured it growing larger in diameter, and within a few seconds the light in her paws began growing. Pandora waited until the target was engulfed completely before stopping herself.

Being completely exhausted of her energy, Pandora fell face first onto the ground, the target was completely gone and the what was left of the beams that balanced it were also on the ground and the severed edge had smoking emitting from it.

"Pandora!" Falkor shouted as he had kneeled over her, "are you okay? Wake up!" There was no response. Falkor checked her pulse, she was still breathing, Falkor was thankful for that. The worried fudgehog asked Melony for assistance to help bring Pandora in. She agreed to help him without question. 

Jorelo stood at Priscilla's bedside watching over her, and also hoping she wouldn't ruin the new sheets again. The curious fudgehog wondered what went through the limp pretztail's mind. It's matter got lost as he sat in the recliner and rocked back and forth while his thoughts had taken him other places.

Priscilla unfortunately, was still trapped in her dream. Prisca ordered her to complete target practice.

Regardless of being confined in her cell, Prisca had came up with a way to virtually change Priscilla's surrounding to make it seem like she was outside. With each time Prisca did this, Priscilla was fooled into thinking that it was real and started running for her life.

Prisca would either let Priscilla run until she had ran her little heart out or forced her to stop with one of her many punishments. The enslaved pretztail had refused target practice by just not complying to what Prisca wanted her to do, completely ignoring her.

Prisca was not pleased with this one bit. She gave Priscilla a decent electrical shock until she was on the ground in tears. Priscilla took a deep breath in before getting herself back on her feet. The blue pretztail's anger started to grow, thanks to Prisca provoking her. Priscilla had lost herself for just that moment and was out of control. Luckily for Prisca, she was behind the glass laughing at the poor thing.

Priscilla had made the earth beneath her rumble, or at least the one that was in the virtual place she was in, because the surroundings of her cell wouldn't be taken down so easily. The blue pretztail's pupils were already dilated and eventually faded away, she began to look like she was possessed by an evil spirit. However, Priscilla was only possessed by her own rage and vengeance. But Prisca knew the trance wouldn't last long…

Jorelo was now standing in front of the bed, watching Priscilla squirm around in discomfort, he wondered whether or not to wake her up. For someone in Priscilla's condition, sleep was quite important. Jorelo got the idea that this is probably the way she sleeps every night. Before his thoughts could trail on, Falkor entered the room backwards, carrying Pandora's head, followed by Melony, who supported the limp pretztail's legs

"She passed out," Falkor said, hoping Jorelo wouldn't freak out from it. Instead, Jorelo had only grown curious as to why. 

"What from?" Jorelo asked while looking back to Priscilla, who was still tossing and turning in her sleep.

"Over-exerting herself," Falkor answered as his tone of voice got more excited over the recent events that took place, "she was doing the most unbelievable things Jor!" Falkor exclaimed, almost dropping Pandora to mimic her movements, but he kept his urges contained. Jorelo rolled his eyes and sighed at the eccentric fudgehog.

"She's too dedicated," Jorelo sighed half irritably, "she was probably doing all that because I told her practice would help her gain revenge on her Mo… Er, Prisca," Jorelo really didn't want to use the word _mom_ for someone like that, Prisca was no motherly figure in Jorelo's eyes.

The dark fudgehog saw that Melony was starting to struggle keeping Pandora up, "just put her on the recliner, Priscilla's going to make things worse if we put Pandora on the bed.

Falkor offered another option, "how about we just place her on our bed instead? We won't mind," Falkor's random kindness to Pandora was starting to show.

"Sure, that'll work," Jorelo nodded and thought, "_great, now I have to keep watch on Two piñatas, shouldn't that be our mother's job? Geez_…"

Falkor and Melony had taken Pandora to their room and placed her in bed gently. The bored fudgehog wondered what they should do next, since their entertainment fell asleep on them.

"I wish could do magic like that," Falkor sighed while Melony giggled.

"Why not go back downstairs and snoop for a bit? The door's still open," she tempted him.

"Huh, you sure about that?" Falkor questioned Melony as she hummed and nodded. Falkor had gone over to the doorway poked his head out into the hallway to check, and of course, the door was wide open. "Well what are we waiting for?" Falkor chuckled as he motioned for Melony to follow him. They both walked down the stairs, and _all seeing_ Prisca didn't give a care at all.

Falkor switched the lights on, the cell walls from yesterday were still missing. The curious fudgehog had gone to the control panel against the wall on his left, there was a nicely sized monitor built into the same wall above it. Melony grew anxious over how much technical stuff was in here.

"Do you know how to work these Falkor?" She asked him. Seeing him at work with the matter creator was a guaranteed yes, but actually Falkor wasn't taught how to use these things.

"O-of course!" Falkor lied in a defensive tone, he wanted to impress Melony, but he knew that something like this shouldn't be messed around with. "_Well… Here goes nothing_," Falkor thought to himself as he pressed a random button, hoping he wouldn't blow anything up in the process. The screen turned on. "Whoa!" Falkor was astonished, this only made Melony confused.

"Is there something wrong?" She asked, thinking the machine was at fault. Falkor shook his head.

"No-no, I think it-," Falkor cleared his throat, "I mean it's suppose to do that, I'm just a bit jumpy after seeing Pandora do all those things," Falkor made an attempt to cover up his faults.

"Oh… Okay," Melony didn't really care about Falkor's edginess. The screen was filled with scrambling static. Melony grew sick after staring at it for awhile. Not wanting to throw up, the pretztail forced herself to look away, "Falkor, I don't like that moving picture," she whined, wishing it'd go away.

Falkor, wanting to please her every whim, pressed another button, this time a video started to play. Melony glance back at the screen, she saw Prisca on the other side. The golden pretztail looked slightly younger to her and Falkor. Prisca stood where the pair were standing right at this moment.

"What's this…" Falkor's voice trailed off as Prisca started talking, "video journal entry one-hundred-seventy-four, I have recently started working on two specimens, they will be my aid for destroying the _scum_ on Piñata Island," Falkor already heard this before, but he didn't mind hearing it again. Though to Melony, this was ear candy. Melony tried to reach through the screen to touch Prisca on the other side, but Falkor took her paw away from it after she fail to get into the screen.

"Don't do that please," Falkor ordered and she complied. The golden pretztail continued, "they will be code named Priscilla, and Malak," she took a minor pause between both. Falkor wasn't sure he heard right, didn't she mean _Pandora_ and _Jorelo_?

The roused fudgehog was tempted to rewind the video to hear it again, but he had no idea which of the many buttons did that. Knowing he was going to miss out on valuable information, he returned listening to the video.

"…They will not only help with just that, but they will also help with their future generations, since these two specimens are my very first living weapons, they are bound to have flaws… That I will not doubt" Prisca nodded. The hungry fudgehog wished he had some popcorn to go with this, his hunger grew with her going on and on about these specimens of hers.

"Falkor," Melony spoke up, "what's she talking about?" Falkor told her to shush, but before he could get back to watching the video, it had already ended.

"Dang it," Falkor let out, "now I missed what she was saying!" Falkor got a bit ticked off and Melony felt bad for interrupting him during the video.

"Can't you just play it again?" Melony wondered. The frustrated fudgehog wished he could, and an instruction manual would be of much help. However a message abruptly appeared on the screen saying: "Would you like to see the most recent video entry? Yes/No."

Melony reached for the screen, but before Falkor could stop her, Melony pressed the yes option, the monitor beeped and skipped to the recent entry.

_ "Wow, a touch screen as well_?" Falkor thought as he would really have to keep a good watch on Melony's paws now. The date of the video was 6:35 AM of yesterday. Quite awhile before the group had gone in the basement for the first time. Prisca was in the same place as last time. Priscilla could be seen also, starting at the camera all the way from inside her cell hoping that that someone Prisca was talking to would come and save the her.

"Video journal entry two-hundred-fifty-eight," Prisca started, Melony couldn't help but keep focused on Priscilla, she was about to take her paw and try and grab her out of there until Falkor stopped her.

Melony, being deprived of modern technology, had no idea what videos were, she seen it as a window to another part of the basement.

Prisca continued, "nothing much has changed, it seems Malak has not followed me here from the sour fortress yet, but I am sure that he will find his way back eventually, I hope Jorelo and Pandora will be ready for that time, for I fear the worse could be right around the corner."

_ "The worst? What is she talking about?"_ Falkor wondered, Prisca had a hold of his interest more than ever now.


	17. Chapter 17

-1**Chapter 17**

Malak stood in Prisca's office back in the sour headquarters. He had two of his undead minions accompany him, one an ex-member of PDF another an undead sour. They had Marly restrained in Prisca's chair, all ready for an interrogation.

Malak felt up his handgun before speaking, "I'm not going to say it again," he let out a small growl, "where's Prisca?" Marly's face and body showed no fear.

"I haven't got a clue," Marly replied. And he truly didn't have the slightest clue of her whereabouts, "I was ordered to leave once I brought her what she wanted," Malak turned and faced Marly directly.

"And what was it she wanted?" The mallowolf asked him, Marly let out a snicker.

"Jorelo and Pandora, but personally I don't se-" Malak cut Marly off, "so she's taken them with her as well?" He barked.

"You know it's rude to interr-" Marly was cut off again, "I don't care if it's rude or not! I'll have what I want or I'll take your life instead," Marly was now the one in checkmate here, if it wasn't for the anti-magic restraints, Marly would have shown them a thing or two about respect.

"Geez, clam down," Marly suppressed a laugh, he was going to have fun with this if this was going to be his last moment on earth.

"I'll clam down when I'm dead, now you haven't have the _slightest_ idea to where they went…?" Malak dug into him, but Marly just shook his head.

"Not the slightest, maybe check some of the files around here, the drawers here might hold something of interest," Marly gave his ideas. Malak had most of his troops and scouts search most of the places of the HQ after taking siege of it. Prisca's office might just have what they're looking for.

The group searched the room, determined to leave no stone unturned. They finally received a break once Malak found small panel of buttons on the wall behind one of the bookshelves.

"This looks promising," he murmured to himself as he pressed one of them, a hidden door on the same wall had parted open to reveal an elevator. Malak had entered it without delay. He examined the levels it was able to take him to. Strangely, there were only two floors, here and the basement.

Before taking the elevator down, Malak ordered the two soldiers to keep a close watch over Marly while he was gone.

On the way down, the mallowolf thought over the past. How he had escaped Prisca's grasp as a very young child to be exact. He hated her just as much as Pandora did if not more.

He couldn't help but think of Pandora too, and how he was infatuated with her in his childhood, he was still slightly fond of her now. He nagged at himself for not stealing her from Jorelo when he had the chance, that weak, ungrateful little bastard. But before he could continue on, the doors had slid open once again.

The basement was faintly lit with rows of panel lights on the ceiling, but the room was still somewhat visible. Malak noticed that the basement was oddly familiar, like he had been in it before. The truth was it was an exact replica that Falkor and Melony stood in right now.

There was a computer monitor mounted on the wall, shining brightly down onto the metal desk below it. The curious mallowolf had gone to take a closer look, he saw a white fudgehog and a pretztail of the same color. They were looking downwards at something, that or it was the camera positioning.

Malak started to remember the fudgehog, but the Pretztail next to him was still a mystery. 

"Falkor…" he grumbled aloud, ready to kill the fudgehog if he was standing right next to him. 

"Did you hear that?" Falkor asked Melony, she nodded. 

"Yeah, I heard something say your name," she agreed, "maybe it's this thing," Melony pointed at the whole machine itself, "it's probably really smart, but not as smart as you Falkor," she giggled after admitting that.

Malak took heed of what had happened and decided to shut his mouth until the two had left. He could hear his creator talking in the background.

_ "Prisca! They must be where she is, I just have to find out where they are and how to get there_," Malak thought to himself as he scanned the place over. Maybe he could find some kind of teleportation device which could take him to get to his target. Though, even if he could, he'd need back up, Prisca was one tough cookie and Malak's strength alone couldn't best Prisca's.

There had to be something here that could help him, anything. After tirelessly searching the place, Malak eventually found a box filled with chemicals and other packs of goodies Prisca must have been saving for a rainy day. The mallowolf was careful not to just carelessly toss things aside while looking through the box, some of the items could prove to be deadly if expose to air.

Malak found a few good samples and ingested them one after the other, He could feel the power of a God coursing back into him. His knees began to weaken as the consumed samples he took recently began to take effect. Losing willpower, Malak fell to the floor and blacked out. 

"Soon if not eventually," Prisca started, "the reunion of the four weapons will…" Falkor didn't really want to hear anymore, Prisca was speaking of an upcoming apocalypse, and hearing about it depressed him. He attempted to turn in off and eventually succeeded after pressing a few buttons here and there.

"What's wrong?" Melony asked. Falkor sighed before answering, "I just need some sleep, that's all."

"Okay…" Her voiced trailed off as she watched Falkor climb up the stairs. Once he was out of sight Melony pondered if she should tamper with the control panel to turn it on again or not. The pretztail ended up toying around with the unfamiliar technology.

Fortunately, Melony got the machine going, but Prisca wasn't on the other side this time she saw Malak lying on the floor, which to her was just a random brown mallowolf.

He was holding something strange to her in his paw, but to a modern piñata it was a handgun. Seeing the mallowolf in pain, Melony couldn't help but feel sorry for him.

Though the naïve pretztail still believed the monitor doubled as a window. And as if it was some botch of physics, Melony was somehow able to slip into the other side of the screen with ease. Without a second thought, Melony retrieved the limp mallowolf and returned back to Prisca's basement, both still in one piece as they returned.

She laid Malak onto the wall and messed around with the monitor, attempting to turn it off. The pretztail accidentally deleted some files in the process, but luckily for her, Prisca had backups. Though Melony didn't seem to care that much as long as the machine ceased functioning.

After it had shut down, Melony took a firm grip on Malak's body and brought him up stairs very carefully while struggling to keep balance with each step. The uneasiness made the gun slip out of Malak's paw. With burning determination, Melony eventually made it to the top nearly passing out as she set the mallowolf against the wall.

The clacking of the keyboard had abruptly stopped and the sound of a wooden chair scrapping the floor filled the room for only the moment. The noise made Melony's ears perk as she directed her sight towards the end of the hallway. Prisca's golden figure had caught the arctic pretztail's eye. Melony thought Prisca was here to help her with placing the poor mallowolf in a bed, Prisca however, had different plans for the pretztail.

"Malak!" Prisca had called out at the limp mallowolf, Melony had no idea who Prisca was talking to, but she did hear that name before, recalling Prisca mentioning that name on the monitor not too long ago.

"Huh?" Melony questioned, she finally came to the conclusion that the mallowolf she carried all the way up here must be Malak. The arctic pretztail felt fairly unsure about letting Prisca get near him as she recalled how she had taken care of Priscilla and that didn't seem very nice to Melony.

"Let me see him!" Prisca demanded as she treaded carefully down the hallway towards them. Her sluggish movement wasn't in fear of Melony, it was of Malak. Melony hesitated over the matter and she wasn't the only one. Melony saw Priscilla swiftly slide from the door, only to stop right in front of her. The light blue pretztail had confronted Prisca by calling her by her name. Prisca, who could see everything, didn't see this one coming.


	18. Chapter 18

-1**Chapter 18  
**

A few minutes earlier from that moment, Priscilla was still tossing and turning. Journeying through memories that were haunting her dreams was no walk in the park. Priscilla eventually woke up in her fight against them. Jorelo, still watching over her, had greeted her with a question.

"…How are you feeling?" The fudgehog asked her regardless of knowing she wouldn't respond. Reacting to his voice, Priscilla let out a small moan of pain and sat herself up. It was then Jorelo could hear a soft female voice but it was rather one lingering inside his thoughts.

"_I just woke up_," it spoke, "_and I don't feel so great_," Jorelo blew it off as his own thoughts speaking for her, he kept staring at her hoping maybe she would climb out of bed. Priscilla checked herself over wondering why Jorelo kept eyeballing her, "_something wrong_?" The voice popped into Jorelo's head again.

"…Am… Am I hearing things?" Jorelo asked himself as he check to see if anything was messing with his hearing.

"_No, I'm talking to you Jorelo_," it spoke again. Jorelo now started to look around, no one else was in the room and the house was pretty much quiet except for Prisca typing on the keyboard and Pandora's moderate snoring.

"…Who are you?" Jorelo called aloud while still surveying the room, hoping Priscilla didn't think he was talking to her.

"_It's me… Priscilla_," she said in her telepathic way still looking at the confused fudgehog, Jorelo faced himself towards Priscilla, "_I'm sorry for the confusion, I didn't mean to make you think you were crazy_," Jorelo gawked at her in astonishment.

"…If this is Falkor's doing I-" Priscilla's telepathy cut him off, "_no, this is me talking Jorelo, Falkor has no part in this_," she told him the truth as it had shown in her eyes, making Jorelo placing his trust in her words.

"Okay… Anyways," Jorelo began, "what's with the mind talking business?" Priscilla scooted over the edge of the bed and sighed.

"_I don't feel like using my voice really_," she said as she pushed herself off the bed and stood up to face Jorelo, "_besides, this way is much easier for me_," she admitted, Jorelo decided to let the matter go and ask a different question.

"Yeah, that'd be easy if I could do that too, but why couldn't you talk to us earlier?" Jorelo tilted his head in confusion. Priscilla shook her head before responding.

"_I was too troubled to do anything sane_," she explained, "_but… The sight of other piñatas_" her mental voice trailed off, "_it's something I haven't seen in years_," Priscilla broke eye contact and looked at the bedside. "_And it calmed me down considerably when you all welcomed me with open arms, especially you and Pandora_," she giggled telepathically as she looked back at him, her facial looks and mouth matching each small laugh, "_it's been years since I last saw you two_," Jorelo became lost with her last comment.

"Last saw you two?" he repeated, "you mean we met before? I don't recall anything…" Priscilla shook her head again.

"_You can't, because you can't remember back that far_," Priscilla put obviously, "_I've watched Prisca work tirelessly on bringing you both to life_," Jorelo cringed slightly after she said that, but she kept going, "_of course I was five years old around that time, I'm lucky I still remember that_," she chucked, by this time Falkor made his way upstairs, he past Jorelo's room and then walked backwards and looked inside the room at Priscilla.

"I see she's up, how is she?" Falkor asked Jorelo, Priscilla glowered at him.

"_This _SHE___has a name, y'know_!" Falkor heard her voice, but hadn't been properly informed of where it came from.

"Huh, who said-" Falkor started, though Jorelo didn't let him finish, "it's Priscilla's way of talking, don't worry about it," Falkor took his word for it.

"Okay Jorelo…" he shrugged as he turned back to Priscilla," I'm sorry about what I said earlier Priscilla," he paused for a bit before continuing, "I didn't think that you'd be, well… Eh… Smarter?" Falkor tried to come up with a better word, but he had settled for that. He expected a smack in the face, however unlike her sister, Priscilla was mercifully.

"_It's okay, I've made a full recovery_," she said while examining herself, "_I wish I could rid myself of these scars though_…" She pouted at them before looking back to Falkor as the white fudgehog faced Jorelo.

"Melony's still downstairs," Falkor informed him, "I hope she doesn't mess around too much down there," Falkor bit his lip in nervousness.

"Falkor!" Jorelo shouted at him, "you know how Melony is with technology!" Jorelo cussed at him, luckily Priscilla was there to calm Jorelo down.

"_Take it easy_," she interjected, "_that place is idiot proof, I doubt she could do any harm_," she smiled confidently which made Jorelo let loose of his anger.

"You've been there longer than I have, so I guess I'll have to trust you in that," the dark fudgehog said as he released his anger in the form of a sigh. Falkor had welcomed himself in and laid down on the bed.

"I need to rest for awhile," he groaned, "my mind's too overloaded," Priscilla walked over to Falkor and rubbed his forehead while Jorelo asked him a question.

"With what?" Jorelo asked him, wondering what could be burdening him.

Falkor closed his eyes and replied, "a recent webcam video or something, with Prisca talking about some upcoming apocalypse, I just don't want to think about it,"

"Falkor…" Jorelo started, thinking it was probably just a theory of Prisca's, "I doubt there'll be anything like that happening soon,"

"There will be, she was sure of it," Falkor insisted, Priscilla patted him tenderly on the head.

"_Don't think about it_," the pretztail attempted to calm Falkor down, "_just get some rest_," she instructed him as she heard another pair of steps climbing the stairs, but she had ignored them. Falkor sighed as he rolled over onto a pillow and said nothing.

"You don't really think…?" Jorelo asked Priscilla, she shook her head.

"_Not in the least_," Priscilla answered. She hadn't really gave it any thought, probably because she heard the name Prisca and ignored the message completely, even in sanity Priscilla hated her mother. 

"Malak!" Prisca's voice could be heard throughout the house.

Priscilla had thought to herself, "_Malak? Here? It can't be_!" She saw Prisca's shadow growing over the floor of the hallway.

"Let me see him!" Prisca had barked at what was thought to be Malak. Priscilla made her way outside and had stopped Prisca in her tracks with one word…

"Prisca!" She shouted vocally, she knew she was going to be in for it now. Prisca shot a cold stare into her daughters eyes.

"Priscilla," she growled as her eye slightly twitched, "…Don't interfere," Prisca knew Priscilla had recovered completely, but she didn't think the blue pretztail would take her rebellion this far.

Jorelo could feel the bad vibes being given off in the hallway, extremely bad vibes. The fearful fudgehog shut the door and sat on the recliner, hoping this wouldn't break out into a fight to the death.

Priscilla's voice had woke Pandora from her sleep. She opened her eyes and got out of bed, Pandora wondered what the hell was going on now.

Prisca stood in the middle of the hallway facing Priscilla, who was at the near end of it.

"_Pandora_," Priscilla called to her mentally, Pandora had felt a rush of energy fill her body, "_it's time to fight_," she spoke to her softly before rallying her up, "_she's vulnerable now! If you want to show her your revenge, now's the time_!"

Pandora had gone into another trance without even thinking about it. Prisca checked behind her shoulder expecting to see some other feeble piñata, but instead she was greeted by a decently sized fireball to the face. The fire went out instantly, however her face was left charred to a deep black..

The furious Prisca ignored the pain and focused all of her being on Pandora, who was overtook by rage like Priscilla was long ago. Pandora did not hold back, she had to make sure Prisca had suffered plenty before finishing her off, and what better way to do that than to light her on fire?

Pandora had engulfed Prisca in flames, but not before taking a few hits in the chest by a few large icicle spears, but that was nothing once they had melted away and the holes left in her chest regenerated. Priscilla had seen the danger of the situation, Pandora was not going to come out of her tantrum anytime soon. Priscilla had ran back inside the room she exited earlier.

"_Jorelo! Falkor_!" She called for them in her telepathic way, Falkor opened his eyes but didn't answer, she could see the look on Jorelo's face that he knew what was happening.

"Is Pandora okay?" Jorelo asked as he got out of the recliner, "I need to go make sure she's okay!" but Priscilla had grabbed him by the arm before he could open the door. "Hey!" the distressed fudgehog shouted at her.

"_We need to leave, now_!" Priscilla shouted, even though it hurt her inside to leave the others behind, Falkor sat up and was instantly filled with concern.

"What's going on? Something gone wrong?" Falkor asked the pretztail, she nodded at the fudgehog.

"_No time to explain_," she ended as Prisca's cries of pain could be heard through the door. Priscilla took them both by their paws and teleported out of there.

Melony however, had already escaped back into the basement with Malak, hoping to escape the fate that Prisca was enduring. Little did she know that the fire had begun to spread. Melony attempted to get the that window open again, they could hide there until the fire was put out. However there was a problem, Melony had no idea how to turn it on, and randomly pressing buttons didn't help at all.

"No-o-o!" Melony cried out as she saw the fire spread it's way downstairs. There was nothing Melony could do anyways, because before Prisca had confronted her earlier, she had also cut off the power off in the basement. Though Melony, having no idea that that conniving pretztail did such an evil deed, had kept working until the flames had ate her alive. Though Malak had a different fate as he began to glow like Jorelo and Pandora had. unlike Melony, he was going to see himself through all the chaos.


	19. Chapter 19

-1**Chapter 19**

Much of the house was left in ashes, Melony being a part of those ashes as well. Malak eventually woke up to the ruin. He coughed up the smoke he took in as he climbed up to his feet.

"What is this?" The mallowolf survey the place over, almost everything around him was charred black or grey. Malak thought this was some sort of joke. After some keen observation, he took notice that he was in a deep hole in the ground as a sharp chunk of burnt wood fell from above, almost skewering his head. He hadn't notice it until after it hit the floor with a clack-like noise. Nearly jumping out of his mache, the mallowolf twirled around to face the noise.

"Oh… it's only a piece of wood…" "_How embarrassing_…" Malak had thought to himself as he gazed up at the sky, a dense fog of smoke filled the air. He had went for the stairs but they had crumbled in pieces from his weight. The weak stairs made Malak rethink about his method of getting out of this hole. Wall climbing would be the easiest way out now, and the walls still held some sturdiness in them. 

Jorelo woke up in what seemed like the snow house he had been in days ago, "_but didn't the snow melt away_?" He sat up over the bed and was soon greeted by Priscilla.

"_You're awake_," she greeted the fudgehog as she helped him up, Jorelo yawned before saying anything else.

"…Where are we?" He asked her while looking at the familiar features the place had.

"_Melony's house, I rebuilt it from scratch_," Priscilla announced proudly as Jorelo scratched his head in confusion.

"How? You never asked her about it," he wondered trying to put the pieces together.

"_Telepathy Jorelo, it's a powerful thing_," she laughed. The fudgehog finally had gotten it, Priscilla didn't need to ask Melony when she could just read her mind. Speaking of Melony, that brought Jorelo more questions.

"Where's everyone else? Where's Pandora?" Jorelo had went for the door but Priscilla had grabbed him by paw.

"_They're still back there, probably dead from all the fighting, only Falkor is with us now_," Priscilla told him very slowly, however Jorelo still had trouble swallowing what she said. His best friend in the world, gone? No, this was some nightmare, he had to wake up, he just had to. Though as bad as it seemed, this was no dream, "_I'm sorry_," she added, "_I cared deeply about Pandora as well_."

Jorelo couldn't understand that. How could she care about her, they've only met twice and at short intervals, how could a bond develop in that much time? Though he didn't think of Priscilla's sisterly instincts. Pandora was like a sister to her, but she was much more to Jorelo, Pandora was Jorelo's whole world, and now that was gone, or so he was told… 

Malak had quickly made his way out of the hole and examined the area once he was on his feet, however it was still pretty much difficult to see anything with the persistent fog.

The frame of the house he was once under was falling apart piece by piece, but what really caught the mallowolf's eye was a dark blue ball of fuzz lying on the burnt floor as it stuck out from the black mess around it.

Taking his steps carefully, Malak tiptoed around the large pit beneath him and got a closer look. Was it what he thought it was? The mallowolf turned the being onto it's back with his foot, it was none other than Pandora, lying unconscious in the dust.

"The hell…" he let out quietly, "_Jorelo… That bastard left you for dead didn't he_?" He spoke to her in thought. Malak checked her pulse and thankfully she was still breathing. Wasting no time, Malak haled Pandora over his shoulder and left the area, this was no place for a pretztail like her to rest.

Even though he had no idea where he was, there was one thing that was certain, anywhere was better than here. 

"Pandora's not dead! She can't be!" Jorelo shouted at Priscilla as his eyes flooded with tears. Priscilla put both of her paws on his shoulders and looked right at him.

"_Jorelo calm down or I'll have to make you calm down_," she warned him, "_Falkor's accepted the truth, so why can't you_?" Jorelo kept bawling his eyes out. Priscilla knew words couldn't help him feel any better, she was going to have to do something she would dearly regret, but she was sure this would stop him from having a breakdown.

Jorelo, not paying attention to what was happening anymore, was caught off guard by a pair of arms wrapping around him with Priscilla's lips on his. The appalled fudgehog's sobbing was instantly silenced as Priscilla's kiss sent him many unimaginable feelings. Not to mention kissing was something that him and Pandora had never done before.

Jorelo soon forgot the memories of Pandora as Priscilla suck them all away with her lips. Priscilla claimed every last memory of Pandora and replace the dark blue pretztail with herself. Priscilla became the new Pandora to Jorelo.

After it was all over with, Priscilla let go of Jorelo and pulled away from him, she could tell he was tired, a good mind wiping would make anyone tired. Knowing the fudgehog wanted rest, she led the sleepy fudgehog back to bed and helped him in as well as tucked the sheets in.

"I'm sorry Jorelo, but it looks like it had to come to this," she rubbed his head with her paw softly until he was fast asleep. "_But personally… I don't mind,"_ she giggled to herself as she watched Jorelo sleep, having no idea that the memories of Pandora started to affect her own personality.


	20. Chapter 20

-1**Chapter 20**

Falkor did accept the truth, however he couldn't deal with it. Knowing that Melony was gone for good didn't work so well with Falkor's mind. The poor fudgehog had never felt this way about anyone before, or at least as far as he could remember. There were piñatas that he liked, but not loved nor cared about deeply. Melony was the first to mean so much to Falkor, and she was dead now.

The fudgehog had no one to blame but himself. he could have gotten Melony out of there if he was forewarned about what was going to happen. Falkor sighed before falling back down in bed, maybe adventuring into his dreams could help him out of his sorrow.

And the dreams came fast as well for the sorrowful fudgehog. Falkor was now in his teen years, by this time his family had moved to a different part of Piñata Island far away from Pandora and Jorelo. Most of Falkor's siblings had grown up and moved out to chase their own dreams.

Still having a knack for causing trouble at this point, his father and his relationship had been broken down along the way. The rebellious fudgehog started giving his brothers and sisters the cold shoulder, and being caged up inside his home from so much grounding didn't make things any better. Being a bird in a cage, it was not the ideal fate Falkor wanted.

However there was someone he was happy to see now and then in his life, a pretztail to be exact. This certain pretztail was somewhat like Melony, except more familiar with modern technology. Falkor wasn't obsessed over her, but he was mildly fond of her. They were the best of friends, until one day had broke them apart for good.

It was when Falkor snuck out of the house during the dark hours of the night. He had done this often to a point where it was almost daily. Plus curfew was a strict thing around most of the busy towns and cities of Piñata Island. Falkor knew he had to be careful of the adults and authority around him at this time.

The young fudgehog's friend didn't live that far anyways, just a few blocks away from his house. Falkor had become used to the route he would take there during this time of the night, it was as familiar as the back of his paw. It didn't take him long either, he was already at the back of her house and she was already expecting him too. Her room was on the first floor of the two story house. Wasting no more of his time, Falkor had ran up to her window.

"Hilary!" He nearly shouted out his whisper, all with a smile on his face. And Hilary couldn't help but giggle as she watched the eager fudgehog charge towards her window, though when Falkor got face to face with her, it had abruptly been dropped.

"Falkor…" She said softly, "I…" The uneasy pretztail's voice trailed off as she couldn't give him eye contact for what she was about to say. Pangs of guilt had built up in Hilary's chest. Falkor, knowing something was up, couldn't help to ask what was making Hilary so upset.

"What's the matter Hilary?" He asked as a tear trailed down her cheek, Falkor wanted to fix the problem. Whatever the problem may be, even if it meant eliminating her parents from the picture, anything for Hilary.

"It's… I…" She had trouble wording what she needed to say, though she found her self blurting it to him out of the blue, "I'm moving away tomorrow!" She started to cry hysterically.

"Why?" Falkor asked her, she had only shaken her head and wiped her tears only to let them start their trail all over again.

"Because of you Falkor, my parents think you're a bad influence on me," she said miserably between the sobs and tears. Falkor's breath was taken away in that moment, his best friend in the whole world was moving, there had to be something he could do to stop her, anything!

"No, you can't go! I'll… I'll follow you!" The dismayed fudgehog said, "tell me! Where are you going? You have to tell me!" Falkor wished it was all a dream, which this ironically was. Unfortunately it was a dream of his past, and he was reliving it. Sadly the dream didn't change as Hilary shook her head again.

"I promised my parents I wouldn't tell," Hilary sobbed. She was a very obedient child, it was no wonder that her parents disapproved of Falkor as he was nearly the opposite.

"Who do you care about more? Me? Or your parents?" Falkor had said bitterly, sending her on a guilt trip, though it was only out of disbelief.

Hilary didn't want to deal with the pain that was tearing her apart anymore, she slammed her window shut and climbed into bed. Hilary forced herself forget about Falkor, she made herself believe her own lies for the following days, Falkor never existed to her anymore.

"Hilary…" Falkor whined dejectedly at the glass and curtaining that had separated them.

With nothing else to do, Falkor had gone back home to bask in his sorrow. Falkor had no idea that Hilary had sent a letter to him days ago about the location of her new home. Unfortunately for both of them, it had gotten lost in the mail.

Though luck was on Falkor's side, the letter did reach him eventually, however it was already too late for two reasons. One of them being that Falkor was in Piñata Resistance at the time. The other reason being the horrible truth that Falkor had forgotten about Hilary as well. The memory left as Falkor finally matured, however his personality was slightly stunted, he was more of a pain in the ass than the trouble to society he once was. 

Priscilla had woken Falkor up from his dream a few minutes after Hilary had pushed him out of her life.

"It's time to get up Falkor!" Priscilla said aloud, knowing telepathy talk wouldn't wake the fudgehog, not to mention the memories of Pandora started to eat away Priscilla's own habits. Falkor had let out a groan influenced yawn while working himself to the edge of the bed.

"…What is it this time?" Falkor didn't really take notice that Priscilla was talking vocally, or care for that matter, he was still bent over dwelling on his recent dream.

"We're going back to Piñata Island, well, you two are, this'll be my first time there to be honest," she giggled after that being said, Falkor didn't join in, but that didn't mean he didn't reply.

"Back? Why? What happened?" He was filled with perplexity again. Priscilla had to clear her throat before speaking as it had been a _long_ while since she had last used it often to talk.

"Malak has restored life on Piñata Island and has taken refuge on it," she informed him. Falkor didn't really have a clue who Malak really was, though Prisca mentioned him a few times in the videos.

"Malak…? You mean that other living weapon Prisca was going on about" Falkor wondered as Prisca nodded.

"I was out looking around the remains of the house, I've found traces of both Pandora and Malak, Malak was moving, but I'm not sure about Pandora," she took in a deep breath in before going on, "I've repaired most of the mechanisms there as best as I could and tracked them down, Malak had vanished into thin air… Though what he doesn't know is that this machine also doubles as a tracking device!" She snickered a little before going on, "I have him generally pinpointed on Piñata Island," she had continued breathing after she had finished.

"What about Melony?" Falkor's hope returned, only to be crushed as Priscilla shook her head, "I'm sorry, I didn't see any sign of her anywhere." Discouraged, Falkor sighed and looked down at the snow floor below him. Priscilla had offered him her advice. "Maybe if we go back to the house, you can try to recreate Melony again? Will that help?" She did have a point, since that's how Melony was created in the first place, but Falkor had refused to believe she was just created from that _evil contraption_, there had to be a more valid reason than that.

"No… I can't just recreate her, that's sickening and selfish," Falkor also had a point, but Priscilla was more concerned about Falkor's mood than his actions.

"…Well, I'm sorry I can't really help you then," she sighed, feeling his pain, "anyways, I have the spacecraft already started up, you do what you need to do to get ready and meet me outside, got that?" Falkor nodded in acknowledgment.

Priscilla left the room as Falkor took care of his daily needs. Falkor wondered where she got the spacecraft from, then thought of the _evil contraption_ came to mind as the culprit, but why a _space_craft, isn't this still Earth? The conflicted fudgehog pushed away the thought as he poured himself some milk in the kitchen.

"Jorelo?" Priscilla called out while peeping through his door, "…Are you awake yet?" He replied with his obnoxious snoring. Hearing that he was still asleep, Priscilla had snuck closer to him and started tickling the sleeping fudgehog to wake him. "Wake up Jorelo! I said wake up!" The pretztail said through her giggling attack. Jorelo was given one rude awakening that's for sure.

"Ack! Stop!" He cried while joining in Priscilla's laughter, which was not by his own will.

"Oh fine…" Priscilla faked a groan as she gave Jorelo his space. "How did'ya sleep?" She asked him.

"…Felt like I was hit by a truck," Jorelo winced as he stood up and attempted to keep himself balanced.

"Here," Priscilla interjected, taking him by the waist with one arm, "you can use me to lean on if you feel dizzy," the pretztail tried not to blush, but the memories of Pandora had more control over Priscilla than she had of herself. Besides, Jorelo didn't mind, he really needed a walking stick anyways, maybe even a walker, but Priscilla had worked out just fine.

"Thanks," Jorelo smiled gratefully while Priscilla led him out of the room, "…So what's happening today?" Jorelo asked her as he felt the urge to do something new this day.

"We're going on a trip," she responded, wondering if Jorelo would ask where to.

"A trip?" he questioned back to her almost losing his balance from the excitement of the news, "where?"

Falkor watched them enter the living room and decided to spoil it to Jorelo instead of letting Priscilla inform him, "…Piñata Island," Jorelo turned his attention to Falkor.

"…'Morning Falkor," Jorelo happily greeted him. Falkor was in the middle of drinking some milk when Jorelo got his attention, so all the white fudgehog could do was wave back to his friend. Priscilla returned to talking to Jorelo.

"So what do you think about that?" the pretztail asked him as she let him sit down on the couch, "going back to the island I mean," she corrected herself.

"But isn't their nothing left?" Jorelo replied, "…Remember the bombings? You were there Priscilla!"

Hearing Jorelo's nonsense, Falkor could help but cough up his milk before speaking, "What! I don't remember her bein-" Priscilla had suddenly cut him off.

"Falkor!" She barked and winked blankly at him, Falkor didn't know what she meant. His intelligence couldn't understand what Priscilla was trying to get through to him. Seeing the fudgehog's confusion, Priscilla put a finger to her lips and shushed at Falkor. He rolled his eyes in a "whatever-you-say" manner and had walked off to the bathroom to ready himself for the upcoming flight.

"Well," Priscilla faced Jorelo again, "Malak had restored life back to Piñata Island, and seeing as he's got an unpredictable nature, we can't let this go unnoticed," Mentioning that Malak had done something as powerful as that had got Jorelo's mind thinking.

"Malak… Restored Piñata Island? You… Serious?" Jorelo questioned her, she nodded and sent away his doubt. "It's a long story, but we need to hurry, Malak isn't wasting any time. I just hope you'll be ready once we find him," the pretztail warned him.

"Ready? How?" Jorelo was confused. Hearing his hesitation, Priscilla had thought she had taken too much from Jorelo's memory banks. That, or Jorelo was suffering from some sort of amnesia. Worrying over Jorelo's state of mental being, Priscilla bit firmly on her lower lip nervously, hoping she didn't cause any harmful, permanent damage to him.

"Like Pa-" Priscilla suddenly remembered, Pandora was nothing to Jorelo anymore. She faked a cough in an attempt to cover her mistake, "like your inner powers, you know?" Jorelo had gawked at her like he did at his math teacher when the teacher had done equations on the board that he didn't get.

"…Inner.. Powers?" Jorelo recited, "what powers?" Priscilla's face fell into her paws as she sighed. 

"I guess you really _don't_ know," Priscilla mumbled, wondering if she should put back the memories she had once taken, but that would make Jorelo's body even more frail than it was now. All she could do was hope for the best and see the fudgehog through this dilemma.

"What?" Jorelo said wanting to know more, "tell me!" Priscilla just shook her head.

"You were created for _war_ Jorelo, _you _should know that," she told him, but the dense fudgehog didn't really quite get it.

"War? I'm certain I wasn't raised for that purpose," Jorelo chuckled lightly as Priscilla realized she _did_ end up taking too much of his memories.


	21. Chapter 21

-1**Chapter 21**

Malak was wandering through the midmorning streets of Piñata Island with Pandora sheltered in his arms. This was Piñata Island just moments before the war had officially begun. Prisca had no longer existed, so the island will continue to flourish with life. Sours nowadays had resided in the forests, jungles, and even some caves of the island.

This was Malak's re-creation. He couldn't call it his _creation_ because Prisca had built it the first time. Malak had copied everything Prisca had, except for that evil mother of his and the sour empire, which meant that Piñata Resistance and PDF never existed.

The mallowolf was looking for a proper place for Pandora to rest. He could have whipped up a house easily, but his energy levels were pretty low, just enough to keep him going.

The sun had shined brightly in Malak's eyes as he spotted a young Pretztail adult with mache of pure white. A closer look revealed that the pretztail was female, her most noticeable feature besides her snow white fur was the long silvery hair the flowed with the breeze. The pretztail was watering her garden plants out in the front yard of her house when Malak came near her.

"Mam," he said hoping to gain her attention, though she didn't notice him at first. Hoping the pretztail would hear him this time, Malak called again a bit louder, "Mam?" Her ears perked as she looked over at Malak's direction and took notice of him.

"…Me?" She replied, soon surveying the area around herself, wondering if the mallowolf was calling for some other female, but no one else was in reach of the voice's call. Malak had nodded to her, answering her question.

"My friend here passed out," he raised Pandora a bit when mentioning her, "is it okay if I can lay her down inside," he said hoping that she would let him. The pretztail set her watering can down and stood up. Malak had tensed up a bit as she approached him. She had gazed at Pandora with her jaw dropped open as she noticed that the blue pretztail was in awful shape.

"Why not just let her rest at your house?" She suggested, not really wanting to share her house with total strangers, but something was different about them.

"I would, but I come from out of town, you see," Malak countered, "I found her lying in rubble and ash as is,"

"Why not try the hospital? I'm sure they have rooms available," she replied with another excuse, Malak was getting slightly frustrated now.

"Again, I would, but I'm short on money, but if you-" the pretztail cut him off after she heard 'short on money.'

"don't worry," she reassured him as she trotted into her house and closed the door behind her. Malak wondered if he drove her off into her home with his persistent pestering. The front door had opened before Malak could ponder the thought any longer. The pretztail came back holding a small bag, the contents inside had clinked against each other with each step she took. She offered it out to Malak once she had closed the distance.

"Take it," she offered, "that should cover it," Malak hesitated for a moment before speaking.

"I-I couldn't…" He winced, not wanting to resort to taking someone's money.

"I insist," she asserted, "no need to pay me back either," she added as she set the small bag on top of Pandora's stomach.

"T-Thanks," Malak forced himself to say as he walked off back into the sunrise. The white pretztail watched him for a moment before returning to tending her garden. 

Falkor sat upon the toilet as he replayed the dream he had awhile ago in his head. He wished he could have changed the past for the better. The letter that he got when he was in the piñata resistance came to mind as he dwelled further on the dream. The fudgehog remembered that he mistook it as a letter from his parents when it first reached his paws, but his parents didn't really have a caring bone in their body for their son anymore at this point, that is, if they happened to be still alive by that point. Falkor tried going back in time in his mind and remembering it piece by piece.

"_Come on Falkor… Think, think for once in your life…"_

Falkor pictured himself back at the Piñata Resistance base, though he struggled where the whole matter took place.

_You know where it is… Isn't it…. The place where we always hold our discussions? Of course, the lounge!_

Falkor recalled seeing Jorelo and Pandora sitting together, and Jorelo was showing her something important, reading something from a sheet to the pretztail, but that part really didn't matter to Falkor. The white fudgehog sat across from them and put the letter on the table.

"I've been here for around a month now and I only get one letter…" Falkor interjected into the conversation, not knowing if he should be happy or sad about his first letter.

"So?" Pandora retorted, "we've been here longer and the only mail we get is emails from each other," she explained while pointing back and forth from Jorelo to herself. Falkor had sighed and rolled his eyes.

"I don't know who it's from, though I check the address and information on the front but it's all anonymous," he shrugged, Jorelo joined in the conversation after hearing his query.

"…Parents maybe?" he suggested, Falkor shook his head.

"I thought that too, until I remembered how much they hated me," Falkor said rolling his eyes again.

"Ouch…" Jorelo winced, thankful that his foster parents never hated him or Pandora. The pretztail spoke up shortly once Jorelo commented on Falkor's parents, "are you just gonna sit there, or are you gonna open it, maybe you'll find out who it's from then,"

"Okay, okay! I just wanted to share with you guys first before I did," Falkor replied as he retracted his letter back from the table and opened it carefully, not wanting to harm the contents inside. A lone folded piece of paper rested in the pouch, Falkor had pulled it out and read it aloud to his friends.

"_Oh dammit…. What the hell did it say?_"

By this point Falkor had gave up and resumed getting ready for the trip back home. 

Outside, Jorelo and Priscilla were already in the spacecraft, which coincidentally looks like a miniature size of the stealth aircraft that the Piñata Resistance had, though it seems as if it could hold about twenty large piñatas and still be able to fly.

Jorelo was all belted into his seat, thanks to Priscilla. Unfortunately, Jorelo was still struggling to do most things without her help, but he _was_ recovering. In just mere moments, Falkor finally met up with Priscilla by the front door of the snow house.

"Falkor, ready to say goodbye to this place for good?" Priscilla smiled at him. However, hearing that made him think of saying goodbye to Melony and he didn't really want to say good bye. The least he'd want to do before leaving for good was to create a grave for her. Maybe he could when he got back… If he ever did.

"…I guess so," Falkor let out a depressed filled sigh. Priscilla held the spacecraft's side door open for him as the fudgehog stepped aboard. Priscilla took one last look at the igloo-like home before boarding the craft herself.

Falkor plopped down in the seat next to Jorelo, not caring how much it'd hurt his bottom. Jorelo offered Falkor a friendly wave and a smile, Falkor nodded at him in acknowledgement. Priscilla however, sat right ahead of both of them in front of the large operating board. There were about six other empty seats in the room that sat motionless, the emptiness it made the place feel a bit secluded.

The engine started to pick up its roar a bit as Jorelo and Falkor both withdrew slightly from the sound. And in moments the spacecraft was soon in midair and charged ahead to the clouds above. Jorelo wondered why they needed to be so high in the air, in fact he asked Priscilla about it.

"Where are you going Priscilla? Aren't we going back to Piñata Island?" He tilted his head in confusion. Priscilla looked away from the main screen and twisted her chair around to face Jorelo.

"Yes we are. Which reminds me… Prisca's secret hideout was on the moon! Who knew?" The pretztail started laughing, "she's got a good way of keeping things secret from those she doesn't like, speaking of which… I better engage the cloaking device!" Priscilla rotated the chair back to the controls and threw a small lever, nothing seemed to change on the inside of the spacecraft, but they were perfectly hidden on the outside.

Falkor ignored the chatter as he was tuned out, gazing outside through the side window, saying goodbye to the igloo home and to Melony in his head. After bidding farewell, Falkor's mind trailed over to the letter he had received in the past, as if it had came back to haunt him.

The trio were now as high as the stars, which Jorelo gawked at them in wonder until Priscilla had broke his concentration.

"…Just to let you both know," Priscilla started, "it might be quite a long ways back, I can't predict the time we'll have to enjoy the ride, so if you want to explore the place for awhile, that's fine with me," she informed them, smiling a bit, mostly at Jorelo.

"I wouldn't mind a tour," Jorelo spoke up as he unbuckled himself from his seat. Priscilla did the same and headed to aid Jorelo out of his seat.

"Are you gonna come along, Falkor?" Priscilla asked him.

"…Nah, I think I'm just gonna take a nap," Falkor answered as he folded out his chair until it was laid out nearly flat.

"There's beds in the back if you want to sleep there," Priscilla offered.

"I'm not picky…" Falkor closed his eyes.

"Okay," Priscilla gave up as she led Jorelo out of the cockpit. Falkor hoped maybe a dream would answer his questions, he wished he wasn't so careless back then.

Back in the dream world, Falkor began reading the letter aloud, "'to Falkor,'" Falkor tilted his head a bit and gave a puzzled look at the parchment surprise.

"What's wrong?" Jorelo asked him, wondering why the white fudgehog stopped reading it.

"I never seen handwriting like this before…" he pointed out, but what he didn't know was that he _had_ seen it before. Back when Hilary and himself were still together the crafty fudgehog would sneak into her room without her parents knowing, and once Hilary herself wasn't looking at the sly fudgehog, he would sneak peeks in her diary. Falkor learn a lot about her back then. In fact within the first few weeks they had became friends he happened upon a part in her diary about her having a crush on him. The fact made him blush and pretty quiet for the rest of the day after he read it.

"Well keep going then!" Jorelo replied, wanting to hear the rest.

"Okay, okay! calm down," Falkor returned to the letter, "'I'm sorry Falkor, but my family is moving tomorrow, my parents want me to be as far away from you as possible, they told me not to tell you where we're moving to, but they never said I couldn't reveal it to you by letter!'" Hilary was cunning as she was obedient, "'look at the address on the back, that's where I'll be… Forever yours, Hilary,'" Falkor finished up.

"Ha!" Pandora shouted, "seems I'm not the only one who finds Falkor annoying!" Falkor scowled at her remark.

"Falkor, flip it around and take a look at the address," Jorelo motioned his paw in a circle and Falkor did as he was told, but before he could make out the words he woke up back in his seat. Falkor growled while clinching his fist.

"Dammit!" He shouted at the ceiling, "I was so close too!" Falkor had wanted to cry, and he ended up giving in to the urge. All Falkor wanted was to fill the void that was longing for that someone to love, and who could blame him? 

Malak had entered the hospital with Pandora still in his arms, he had gone up to the desk and waited for the barkbark receptionist behind the desk to look up from what she was doing.

"Yes?" She asked with a false smile over her face, clearly trying to brace her day of boring work.

"Um…" Malak started, he wasn't so good with talking to total strangers and not to mention he knew nothing about hospitals, "my friend here…" The barkbark stood up from her chair to get a better look at the pretztail.

"O-o-oh, we better get her into the ER," she sat back down and called them in. They had to wrestle Pandora out of Malak's arms, he didn't like the idea of random piñatas taking the pretztail away from him, but then again he didn't know how hospitals worked.

He followed them into a room where they started hooking Pandora up to wires and tubes. They urged that Malak stayed outside the room for the procedure, but he made a forceful point by giving one of the doctors a nice black eye. Eventually they all left Malak and Pandora alone once she was fully hooked up to a monitoring system.

Malak sat on one of the high-legged stools next to Pandora and watched over her. Pandora's heart rate on the beeping monitor was relaxing for him. The slow rhythm of the machine brought him to a drowsy sleep.


	22. Chapter 22

-1**Chapter 22**

A little before Falkor started dreaming, Priscilla had shown Jorelo the sights of the spacecraft. Priscilla closed the door to the cockpit so Falkor wouldn't hear them.

"Where to start first… Hmm," Priscilla wondered while keeping Jorelo balanced.

"How about the one we're standing in?" Jorelo suggested with a light chuckle, Priscilla joined in.

"Sure! This is what you'd call the living room," she began, Jorelo took notice that it seemed oddly familiar, "I thought I'd bring a little piece of home with us," she admitted while giggling, Jorelo realized he was right about it being similar.

"More like the whole home," Jorelo put in a teasing tone.

"The whole home in a spaceship, what-do-ya think of that?" Priscilla bragged proudly, Jorelo nodded and hummed. Priscilla went on, "except for the basement, it's now the engine room, but I don't think you'll mind," she led the fudgehog to one of the larger chairs in front of the _evil contraption _and sat him down.

"…Not at all," he smiled as Priscilla sat next to him, however there wasn't that much room that the chair had to offer, but it was doable. The pretztail couldn't help but stare into Jorelo's eyes, and Jorelo didn't have the will to shy his eyes away.

Priscilla leaned her head closer until her lips met with Jorelo. Though luckily for Jorelo, Priscilla left Jorelo's memories alone, this was for her pleasure only. But who said Jorelo didn't enjoy it either, he was more at ease than ever now.

Priscilla found herself wanting more as she wrapped her arms around Jorelo's neck and started going open mouth with him. It was only a matter of moments before the two soon caressing each other. Time seemed to stand still for the two, until a lovesick fudgehog's cries could be heard from inside the cockpit.

"…What's going on?" Jorelo retracted from Priscilla's embrace, her arms automatically let him loose, "is that Falkor?" Jorelo questioned as he glanced towards the door to the cockpit.

"Probably, it's only us three on board… I wonder what's got him so down," Priscilla wondered, also gazing at the door.

"I'm gonna go see if he's alright," Jorelo struggled to get off the chair. Luckily Priscilla was there to aid the recovering fudgehog to his feet, becoming the walking stick yet again for him. But she didn't mind, the closer she was to Jorelo the better.

As soon as Priscilla had opened the door, Falkor had silenced his cries and looked at her and Jorelo with embarrassment on his face.

"What's the matter?" Priscilla asked him, Falkor turned away from them both to hide his tears, but it was already too late.

"N-nothing," Falkor bunched himself up into a ball as Jorelo spoke up.

"I heard you crying Falkor, tell me what's wrong," Jorelo asked, leaning forward at him practically almost falling out of Priscilla's grasp.

"I-… I-… Don't want to talk about it," Falkor waved them off as Priscilla decided it was time to use her trusty telepathic skills again. It didn't take her long to locate Falkor's problem.

"…It's Hilary isn't it," Priscilla concluded as her face saddened, "you miss her, don't you?" Falkor looked over his shoulder at Priscilla, giving her the look that said she should mind her own business.

"…She's a lot like Melony, I don't know, maybe Hilary was hiding under the name Melony with Prisca on the moon." Falkor threw out an idea.

"I doubt it," Priscilla shook her head and paused for awhile, "…You want to know where Hilary lives right now, but you're struggling to find the answer," Priscilla said as she held tightly onto Jorelo so he wouldn't slip out of her paws.

"And I doubt you know where she is…" He retorted as he returned to facing himself. Priscilla shook her head knowing all too well.

"I know as well as you do," she admitted, "I know where she lives," Falkor met her eyes completely with astonishment all over his face.

"Where?" Falkor cried as Priscilla chuckled to herself before breaking his spirits.

"You'll find out in due time, Falkor," she smiled.

"But I want to find out now!" Falkor begged her with puppy dog eyes. Priscilla shook her head again.

"You can wait," the smile disappeared from her face.

"No, I can't!" Falkor was persistent with the pretztail.

"Then wait for Hilary's sake. From what I'm seeing you'd do anything for a girl, and the little things count… All you can do is wait," she explained, hoping he would stop fighting with her.

"I… I guess I will, for Hilary," Falkor obeyed.

Priscilla looked up at the main screen and analyzed what she saw. It didn't take her long to realize they were nearing Earth. She wished the spacecraft was further from earth, so she could have more time to spend with Jorelo.

"…You promise you'll help me find her though?" Falkor urged her to.

"I promise," Priscilla nodded, Jorelo suddenly butted in, "we're almost home…" 

Malak awoke to a still cold and limp Pandora. It seemed like chances for her to wake up were becoming very slim to Malak, but he was willing to wait it out no matter how long it would take. Though time had stop for Malak as the mallowolf swore he saw Pandora's eyes open slightly for a brief second. Maybe she knew where she was and didn't want to be here? Or did it have something to do with that spoiled brat Jorelo?

"…Pandora?" Malak called out to her softly, wondering if she could hear him. He waited, but she didn't answer. 

The spacecraft flew into the earth's atmosphere with it's cloaking gear still engaged. Priscilla had landed the spacecraft into a nearby opening in the woods and took off the cloaking once they safely touched ground.

"Well," Priscilla started, "this is where our search begins," she turned her seat around to face the two fudgehogs behind her. "Are we all ready?" This time Jorelo had the strength to pull himself out of his chair.

"Yep," Jorelo grinned, leaning on the arm of the chair to keep balanced. Seeing Jorelo struggle, Priscilla had taken her rightful place as his walking stick again. And with Falkor watching, made the him long for Hilary even more.

Sighing heavily, Falkor got up and followed them out. The doors flew open and the three were greeted by the woodland air. Priscilla took in a huge whiff, it felt nice to smell other smells besides the ones in that old cell she was trapped in.

"A-a-h…," Priscilla exhaled in a relaxed manner, "the air here is so nice, I can't understand why you guys wouldn't miss a place like this," Priscilla pondered as she helped Jorelo step by step down the stairs.

"I had other things to live for… Piñata Island really wasn't one of them," Jorelo replied, Falkor knew what it was too.

"Well…" Priscilla began to dig into him, "what are the things you live for then?" The pretztail gazed at him, she could see that he was thinking, and maybe thinking a little _too _hard.

"Pa…. Pan…" Jorelo couldn't find the right word.

"You don't have to tell me Jorelo," she hushed him, knowing what he was trying to say and acknowledging there were a few memories she had forgotten to take from him, "I already know," but Priscilla wasn't really upset about it, I mean, Pandora was already dead, right? Nothing to worry about. Nothing at all.

"Really? I don't remember telling you though…" Jorelo's voice trailed off as they walked into the woods slowly.

"You don't have to remember, because I already do," Priscilla whispered into his ear. The way she put it made Jorelo feel a lot better, Priscilla's magic at work once again.

Not much was spoken of once they began their journey as they all found peace in the quiet breeze brushing up against the tress and shrubbery. Well, at least Priscilla and Jorelo, Falkor was too busy fighting with his own thoughts, he just wanted to ask Priscilla to give him the address to his sweetheart, but he knew she'd keep refusing him.

The three eventually made it to the end of the woods. The town outside looked calm, yet busy. Priscilla had looked both ways before crossing the street. Once she led the others to the opposite side of the road, the pretztail began to brief them on their mission.

"Okay, now that we're one step closer, I'm going to see where Malak has been recently," she informed them as she took off something that looked like a palm pilot off of her belt. Jorelo hadn't noticed she was wearing a belt until now, she also had a holster, complete with a handgun, and her cell phone, which looked oddly familiar to someone's he couldn't put his finger on.

The truth was, Priscilla was never wearing a belt to begin with, it started materializing as the memories of Pandora started to sink in, which was around the time where Jorelo and herself were enjoying their time together alone on the spacecraft.

She pressed on the screen of the palm pilot in random places and started concentrating on it, "it can't be…" Priscilla whispered to herself, Jorelo peeked over at the screen, but he couldn't understand what was going on with it.

"What's wrong?" Jorelo asked her, speculating over what's got her so worried. Priscilla was biting her lower lip, she knew what was wrong, her scanner was picking up traces of Malak along with _Pandora_, and she was most certainly alive, but just barely.

"N-Nothing, my batteries are just dying, that's all," Priscilla cleverly covered up her anxiousness.

"Okay, do you have spares on you?" Jorelo asked, wanting to make sure she had everything she needed.

"Yeah, it's fine Jorelo," she replied, trying to tune him out so she could find out where the pair had last been, "Falkor…" she called for him.

"Yeah Priscilla?" the fudgehog replied as he walked up to her wondering what she needed him for.

"Do you know where this place is?" She questioned as she shown him the palm pilot's screen which displayed a map location and an address displayed on it.

"It looks familiar… I think I might know where that is," Falkor scratched his head for a brief moment, "What about it?"

"Can you check there for me? Me and Jorelo are going to check around the town a bit more, see if we can pick anything else up from other people, Okay?" Priscilla placed the compact computer back in it's place as Falkor nodded.

"Alright," he nodded, soon departing from the group, walking down a random sidewalk. The observant fudgehog noticed his surroundings seemed very familiar. He looked from house to house and from sign to sign. He eventually found where Priscilla told him to go. He took a good look at the house in front of him. The building had to be at least two stories tall.

"This is the place I guess," Falkor said to himself as he walked up to the door, taking notice to the flowers and spread of garden tools near the front porch. After ringing the doorbell, Falkor had gawked at the neighborhood yet again as if he couldn't get enough, the door opened with a female voice that pulled his attention back.

"Yes?" the voice questioned his presence, wondering why Falkor was here.

"…Melony?" Falkor replied naturally, hearing the familiar voice as he turned around. The skeptical fudgehog couldn't believe his eyes, it _was_ her. Or at least that was what he thought until she proved him wrong.

"I believe my name is Hilary…" She scowled slightly at the fudgehog as if he were brainless. Then thoughts of the dream and Hilary had quickly returned to him.

"Oh! Hilary! I'm sorry!" Falkor apologized as he grabbed her paws, "it's me! Falkor!"

"Fal…kor? I don't think I ever heard a name as silly as that before," Hilary tugged away, trying to retract her paws back from Falkor.

"You _have_ heard of it before! You have to remember! Back then when we were kids! We'd hang out together! Don't you remember Hilary? You were forced to move away because of me!" Falkor tried to explain as his eyes never darted away from Hilary's. Unfortunately, Hilary still looked at Falkor as if he was a madman. Falkor continued anyways. "You even sent a letter that got lost in the mail! It never got to me 'till years later! You have to believe me!" He finished.

"Well… Where's the letter? Show me the letter and _maybe_ I'll believe you," she glowered at him. Falkor remembered he got rid of the letter afterwards, not knowing who it was from back then. 

"Heh, I don't even know who this _Hilary_ is!" A slightly younger Falkor scoffed, laughing it off soon after.

"Maybe she's a desperate stalker," Jorelo humored him. Falkor shook his head.

"I doubt it, I don't think I have any," he replied while throwing the letter in a nearby trash can without a second thought. The action made Pandora jump in the discussion.

"You're not gonna keep it?" She raised an eyebrow, staring at him with perplexity.

"I don't see a reason why I should," he chucked.

"Not even for the memories?" Pandora tried to convince him into keeping it. Sadly, Falkor shook his head and ignored her suggestion.

"I can't really see why," Falkor rolled his eyes, not willing to go dig it back out, "anyways I'm gonna go to bed, it's getting late, see y'guys tomorrow," he departed with a wave. Once Falkor was out of sight, Pandora got up from her seat and had walked over to the garbage can.

"What are you doing?" Jorelo said, leaning over to get a better look.

"Finding that letter, that ass is going to thank me for it later," Pandora grumbled, pulling out the piece of paper and walking back to the table, "I'm gonna take a shower before I go back to my room and get some rest," she said while folding up the slightly tarnished paper and putting it in her wallet for later use. "Meet back here in the morning?" The pretztail asked him. Jorelo nodded with a smile.

"Sure, I don't mind."

"Good night Jorelo," Pandora trotted away.

"G'night Pandora," he waved her off, watching her leave the lounge.


	23. Chapter 23

-1**Chapter 23**

Malak was still at Pandora's bedside, hoping she would come out of her comatose. It was a miracle as it happened right before his eyes.

"Jor…. Jorel…lo…" Pandora murmured with her eyes barely open.

"No, no it's Malak," the mallowolf told her softly as he leaned over her, almost ready to cry.

"Mal…lak?" Pandora struggled, wondering where Jorelo was. Malak nodded at her with a small smile.

"Yes, Pandora, it's me," he confirmed as his eyes watered up.

"…Why?" Pandora didn't want Malak by her side. All she wanted was Jorelo, Jorelo could ease the pain just by being there, that was something Malak couldn't do.

"Jorelo… He doesn't care about you anymore," he slowly informed her, which was true after all thanks to Priscilla.

"Wha…Why?" Pandora asked while pondering what Malak just said to her, those words didn't feel right at all, oxymoronic even.

"He left you to die Pandora… By a stroke of luck, I found you and saved you from your lonely demise," he admitted to her as his tears fell onto Pandora's face. She was too weak to wince at them, "I swear, if I find him again, I'll make him pay for what he did to you," He growled feebly, overtaken by his emotions.

"Jor…relo…" Pandora repeated, knowing that if he had left her, it had to be for good reasons. She wasn't ready to let Malak's ideas of Jorelo take control of her thoughts just yet. 

"I… I don't have it on me…" Falkor replied gloomily, "please… We have a history together Hilary… You just _have _to believe me," he didn't know what else to say to reassure his stories were true to her.

"I'm sorry… Fal...kor," the pretztail cleared her throat as an excuse if she happened mispronounce his name and closed the door on him.

"Hilary…" Falkor whined in the same tone as when she left him in his dream, it was almost déjà vu to him, but this time Falkor had the reassurance that Hilary still existed.

Walking off the porch, Falkor wondered where his friends were. He had no clue as to where, but he still had his cell phone. The lonesome fudgehog took it out and dialed Jorelo's number hoping the dark fudgehog had charged his phone after it died on him back on Prisca's little moon hideout. 

Jorelo and Priscilla were still on the sidewalks together, searching for their target. Jorelo was walking by himself now, still not fully recovered however, but he was doing great on his own. His phone suddenly began to ring, he removed it from his belt and answered it.

"Hm?" Priscilla hummed, probably guessing it was Falkor since their phone numbers weren't to be known by strangers. Jorelo sat himself down on the grass to rest before he took the call.

"…Yes?" Jorelo answered, wondering who was on the other line.

"It's me, Falkor, where are you guys?" He asked Jorelo as Priscilla watched Jorelo survey the area over.

"Well I think I see a hospital in the distance, will that help you out?" Jorelo replied, trying to be positive about the situation. He hasn't seen this part of Piñata Island before.

Though before Jorelo could say anything else, Priscilla's palm pilot started to beep obnoxiously. The pretztail ripped the palm pilot out of its holder and looked at it. Malak's signs of life were showing themselves all around the hospital Jorelo mentioned earlier, Priscilla called out to her fudgehog partner.

"Um… Jorelo," she hesitated, unsure of herself, and unsure if Jorelo was ready for the upcoming events.

"Hold on a bit Falkor…" Jorelo told Falkor as he put his phone face down on the grass, but Falkor was still able hear them. "What is it?" The fudgehog asked Priscilla, fully facing her.

"Malak's inside the hospital you pointed out just now" Priscilla informed him, afraid of giving Jorelo eye contact as well as the looks he might give her.

"…Really?" Jorelo responded, acting like it was no big deal.

Jorelo took his phone off the ground and worked himself up onto his feet, Priscilla reached out to help him up, but the fudgehog was already on his feet before she could get to him. Jorelo put the phone back to his ear to continue the conversation, "Falkor, listen, meet us inside the hospital, got that?" Jorelo ordered, but before Falkor could reply Jorelo had already hung up the phone. Jorelo turned to Priscilla, "let's hurry then," he said as they both rushed themselves towards the hospital.

Priscilla didn't notice that her wallet had fallen out onto the ground while she ran. As a gust of wind nudged the wallet open, a folded up piece of paper had freed itself from the leather pouch's grasp. The paper looked fairly stained and wrinkled as it partially came unfolded. The light breeze then blew the parchment away into the distance.

Jorelo had trouble making it look like he wasn't limping in his steps as they were nearing the hospital, though Priscilla could easily see it. Once they were at the front doors of the building, Priscilla had held the door open for the recovering fudgehog as he managed his way inside.

The barkbark receptionist saw the two fly right by her without even checking in, she had immediately called for security, because piñatas don't just bolt into a hospital and run through the halls, especially looking like they did.

By this time Priscilla noticed Jorelo's difficulty moving had increased. She had aided him onwards until she was practically _dragging _Jorelo across the room. The duo eventually came upon the room Malak and Pandora were staying in. Priscilla knew both of them just by glancing at them, Jorelo was still trying to process them and their faces, still a little lost from the mind wiping.

"This… this him?" Jorelo asked Priscilla as he watched her give Malak a death stare. Malak faced towards them within an instant of hearing Jorelo speak.

"You…" Malak muttered and soon met with Priscilla's glare, Priscilla stepped slowly inside the room incase Malak were to resort to tricks.

"Malak-" Priscilla started, but was instantly cut off by the furious mallowolf, "Silence!" His attention was now focused on Priscilla. Malak had stomped over the pretztail and slapped her across the face. The blow was hard enough that it make her fall flat on the floor.

"Hey!" Jorelo shouted at Malak, "what's with you?" Pandora picked up Jorelo's voice, but she was too frail to turn her head to face him.

"Jor…relo…" Pandora murmured softly. Naturally Jorelo responded to his name, but the voice was almost too familiar. He had heard that voice somewhere before, but he couldn't place his finger on where or who. Unfortunately, before Jorelo could give it any real thought, Malak had took him off guard by raising the careless fudgehog by the throat with one paw.

"It's time we settled this," Malak growled as he used his other paw to create another portal like Prisca had. Jorelo's fear returned instantaneously as he tried to struggle free from Malak's death grip, it was nearly choking the life from him.

Priscilla had worked herself up to her knees, but she didn't have enough time to react once Malak seized her by the back of the neck and yanked her to the portal. Jorelo was the next, being forcefully thrown in. However, Malak was gentle with Pandora, cradling her in his arms as they both entered into the portal. 

Falkor was rushing over to the hospital, he wish his legs could carry him faster as it was taking forever to get there by foot. His steps seemed to be flowing smoothly, that is, until he slid and fell because of a piece of paper on the pavement. Falkor landed on the hump of his back as the paper flew into the air and landed delicately on his face. Falkor let out an anger filled growl.

"I don't have time for this!" He growled as he tossed the paper aside, completely oblivious that it was the letter he was searching for to show Hilary. The crinkled letter took its course back in the wind again. Falkor eventually reached the hospital about five minutes later, however the rush made the poor fudgehog desperately catch his breath by the time he had gotten through the door.

"Can I help you?" the barkbark receptionist asked him, Falkor trained his eyes at her while breathing heavily.

"I'm," Falkor started as he filled his lungs to speak again, "looking for two piñatas," Falkor paused to breathe for awhile.

"Yes?" The Barkbark replied monotonously, getting a little impatient with Falkor.

"A light blue-ish and white pretztail tagging along with a black fudgehog," he took in another breath, "have you seen them anywhere?" He asked her.

"Yeah, I have," she sighed irritably, "they came in, thinking the hospital was a part of their marathon track," Falkor's eyes widened in hope of finding them faster.

"Where are they?" His voice grew louder as he leaned over the desk a bit.

"I have no clue, I gave up and called security once they reached the hall," she pointed to the hallway behind the double doors. Falkor headed off in that direction, knowing he wouldn't get anything else from her that'd help him find his friends. Maybe some of the piñatas wandering the hallway would know.

Going from piñata to piñata, Falkor asked them if they had seen the two piñatas any place inside the hospital. Each answer had gotten him closer… Or so he thought. 

Priscilla woke up to room of pitch black nothingness, everything seemed quiet. It was actually quite nice to be able to just rest and relax for once since their departure from the spacecraft.

"_What is this place_?"She thought to herself, "_Am I… Dead_?"Priscilla tried to pull herself up to a sitting position, but her wrist and legs were restricted by binds she couldn't feel until now. It was then a faint light had fallen on her. She squinted and blinked her eyes at it, trying to adjust her vision.

"I see you're awake," a male voice addressed her calmly as the pretztail saw a dark figure loom over her, the light behind it had hid its identity.

The floor beneath Priscilla had lifted upwards and was flipped forward so that she was face to face with her captor. The angle of her sight now revealed the stranger as Malak.

Priscilla's couldn't help but be fearful of the situation she was in as Malak had her trapped and cornered.

"Tell me, why are you with Jorelo," Malak dived straight into interrogating the pretztail. Priscilla felt something ripping viciously off of her lower face, she could help but start howling and crying in pain.

Malak threw the used piece of duct tape that he used to keep Priscilla quiet onto the ground. Bits of her mache came off with the tape as tears had drained out from Priscilla's wincing eyes. She tired hard to resist because she knew that Malak craved to see her at her worst.

"I… Don't know…" Priscilla struggled to say with bloodied lips, not wanting to share any information with the mallowolf. And with that said a whip materialized in Malak's right paw.

"If you're smart and value your life, you'll tell me what I want to know," Malak smirked, knowing she'd put up a fight. Even knowing the consequences, Priscilla just shook her head slowly, making sure not to look him in the eye.

Her disobedience did not go unpunished. Malak replied with a harsh lash of the whip to her lower torso. The tear inducing pain was much worse than the tape being violently torn off. Priscilla was more fearful of Malak than ever right now, she knew he meant business.

Blood began to escape from her new wound as the frightened pretztail fixated her eyes at it for awhile before Malak had tore her attention away with the same question: "Why were you with Jorelo?"

"I…" Priscilla desperately wanted to tell this time, but couldn't find the right words, "I guess… I li-liked him…" she stuttered, still not aiming her eyes at the mallowolf.

"_Liked_ him?" Malak grumbled, "so… I'm guessing he left Pandora for you then, am I right?" The words mocked her.

"No! No, I swear he didn't!" Priscilla cried, trying to struggle free, though her attempts were in vain. "We needed to leave Prisca's hideout, things there became too bad for us," she squabbled frantically as she closed her eyes tightly, feeling the whip kissing her right cheek with a loud crack.

"And you couldn't take Pandora with you, hm?" Malak rubbed her mistake in as he was starting to grow slightly irate with her incompetence.

"We couldn't! We had to leave _because_ of her, you see…" Priscilla's voice trailed off, "… She and Prisca got into a fight, and Pandora had lost control of herself and she ended up bringing the whole place down, that's why we had to leave," Priscilla explained as she could taste the blood that ran from her new gash.

"Lose it? Pandora was just barely grasping onto life when I found her! If anything, I bet Prisca had left her like that! You could have stopped this! I know you could of!" he shouted at her, making her feel worthless inside.

"But…" Priscilla whimpered, "you were there too! You were left behind with them, and look at you! I don't see a scratch on you!"

"Lies!" Malak growled, his whip leaving a new welt on Priscilla's left arm. Priscilla shrieked in pain from the brisk contact of the leather.

"You were there! …It's just too much, of a blur, for you to… To remember," Priscilla managed to speak trough the pain, "Trust me… I saw you there," she added on before taking another sickly gasp of air, "and I, tracked you down… Right after… The accident."

Malak wasn't able to recall his memories all the way back to that point in time. All he had remembered was that he found Pandora lying in a pile of rubble and simply blamed Jorelo for it because she and Jorelo were rarely apart.

"Stop lying!" Malak roared as he branded Priscilla vertically across her right eye. Her eye had instantly gone blind from the blood gushing out like tears. The gruesome pain was overwhelming now, Priscilla wished if Malak's intentions were on killing her that he should just get it over with already.

"…What's going on?" A new voice had made itself known behind the darkness. However Malak already knew who it was.

"Jorelo…" Malak grimaced as he faced the fudgehog, eyeing him through the blackness. As Jorelo made eye contact with the mallowolf, a lone light shined itself over Jorelo. "Just in time to see your new lover die," his grim words made Priscilla swallow the nervous lump in her throat. She knew now that Malak was indeed going to kill her, and most likely in a slow and painful manner so that way Jorelo would die emotionally before physically if that's what the mallowolf had planned.

Malak stepped to the side so Jorelo could have a clear view of Priscilla. The fudgehog gawked the blood trailing down her papery fur until his eyes followed it to the bottom where his sight was greeted with the mess of crimson puddles.

"How, could you…" Jorelo uttered while staring at Priscilla's wounds in disbelief. Malak shook his head and laughed at the unfortunate fudgehog.

"How _couldn't_ I?" Malak countered, "you had it all Jorelo, and you threw it all away! I've envied you day and night from the moment I met you, and by the time I'm done, there'll be nothing left of you to envy!" Jorelo recoiled mentally from Malak's words. The fudgehog began to shed tears, however he was too distressed to realize it.

"Wha-…Why?" Jorelo begged him, "I… Used to trust you like a brother! …But, ever since the recent incident back at Piñata Central… I just couldn't think of you as that anymore," Malak blew off what Jorelo said as he snapped the whip across Priscilla's muzzle. Jorelo winced at the vicious snap it made as Priscilla let out bloodcurdling scream from the pain. Her new wound started bleeding into her mouth, preventing her from speaking correctly.

"I don't care about what bullshit you used to have for me," Malak snapped back furiously, "the only thing that matters is that both of you will suffer greatly before you die," Malak turned and cracked his whip over Priscilla's stomach.

Jorelo saw that Priscilla had the wind taken out of her from the recent blow as her face scrunched together repugnantly. As Priscilla quickly came back to her senses, she found herself choking on her blood instead of screaming. The macabre sounds tormented Jorelo as the troubled fudgehog just wanted to cover his ears up and fall into a coma, never to come out. Anything to get away from this horrible nightmare.

But before Jorelo broke down, a piercing gunshot had abruptly ceased the game Malak was playing. The fanatical fudgehog watched as Malak, now stunned in his tracks, fall onto the floor. The mallowolf's head oozed out blood which soon met up and mixed in with Priscilla's.

Jorelo faced himself towards the sound and found a feeble Pandora struggling to keep herself up. Sadly, Jorelo didn't really have any idea who she was. The blue Pretztail was grabbing onto her chest with one paw and gripping a handgun of some kind in the other.

"Jorelo…" Was the last thing Pandora had uttered before she fell to the ground. Jorelo's instincts had instantly kicked in as he rushed for Pandora and caught her in mid-fall.

"Pan-… Pan…dora?" Jorelo replied without much thought as he looked into her lifeless eyes, her body was completely limp. "Say something! Pandora!" It was in that moment that the memories rushed back into Jorelo's mind, he felt fairly renewed inside, though that didn't mean that he felt any better emotionally.

Pandora however, didn't respond. Jorelo checked for her pulse, but he couldn't find any. In tears, Jorelo held her close one last time, cherishing the last moment he would ever have with her before laying her down on the dark floor below.

"Pandora…" Jorelo let out an involuntary sob, which soon grew into a deep mourning. Priscilla had eventually passed on as well during the time Jorelo took to cry over the death of Pandora.

Now stuck with three corpses and no way out, Jorelo was left to rot until he became a corpse himself. The fudgehog took the gun from Pandora's paw and started to contemplate taking the easy way out…


	24. Epilogue

-1**Epilogue **

Hilary's thoughts had taunted her with the subject of Falkor, she didn't want to think about him. Anything _but_ him. She had hatched an idea that a good walk around the block would do her ill thinking some good.

Closing her front door and walking down the steps, Hilary found the warm breeze quite nice against her skin. Without a second thought she started down the sidewalk until she happened to step on a lone piece of paper.

"Ugh… I _hate _litter'ers!" Hilary complained as she took her foot off of it and picked it up. She noticed that the handwriting all over the parchment looked familiar. The curious pretztail found herself reading the message out loud, luckily no one was near enough to hear her. She had also found out that she was the one to write the message, the exact same letter Falkor was talking about earlier.

"…He wasn't lying…" Hilary gasped silently to herself as the wind unexpectedly picked up, blowing the paper out of Hilary's paws, "No-o-o!" She yelled out, chasing after it. 

Falkor wound up back at the front desk of the hospital. There was no trace of his friends anywhere, as if they had just vanished from the face of the earth.

"…You find them?" the receptionist asked Falkor, the fudgehog shook his head.

"No, no one's been able to find them, and they also say a patient had gone missing as well, they're looking into it, so far they've come up with nothing," Falkor sighed hopelessly.

"Hm… I knew there wasn't anything good about those two," she said. Falkor pictured Jorelo and Priscilla, nothing seemed wrong about them, what caused them to just disappear? Was it Malak's doing? It must have been. Falkor knew if the two piñata's were gone and Malak still remained out there somewhere, the fudgehog would be living in a doomed world.

Falkor didn't bother saying anything else to the barkbark, nothing seemed to matter anymore. Everyone he cared for was either gone or forgotten him. Maybe there was something back at the spacecraft that could put him out of his misery, there had to be.

As Falkor departed from the hospital doors his face was greeted by a familiar piece of paper.

"What the?" Falkor mumbled through the paper as he tore it off his face. He soon saw Hilary following right after it.

"Falkor!" she cried out, "I believe you!" Falkor tilted his head at her, was she just playing with him? But the surprise hug he received begged to differ. Hilary had remembered everything once he was in her arms. "I can't believe I had lived my life this long without you… I'm sorry, I should have told you were I was going back then in person Falkor," the fudgehog wrapped his arms around her and rubbed her back, resting the side of his head on hers.

"Don't be sorry…" He let out a sigh of relief, "be thankful," Falkor was indeed thankful, Hilary had just saved him from eventually taking his own life. But now Falkor was given hope and that hope was Hilary. There was a bright future for Falkor and for Hilary, and as time went on, the memories of Jorelo, Pandora, Priscilla, all them, even Melony, had started to fade until it was like they never existed.

Eventually, Hilary had bore Falkor children. However the fudgehog had iffy thoughts of being a father, seeing as his father wasn't really there in his life much. Even with such bitter memories under his belt, Falkor turned out to be the ideal father his children needed, Hilary couldn't have been more proud in her life.

And as the years went by, the two had then grew old and died together when their time came. Falkor, unlike his friends, had gotten to live a happy life despite the horrible mistakes he had made in the past.


End file.
